Rainbows of Decay

Ms. Julia and I had a photoshoot with our wonderful photographer Christina a few weeks ago! You can see them here!

So one overcast April day Julia, Christina and I trekked out to a highway overpass and a train tunnel, resplendent with brightly colored graffiti. Silly me, expecting the weather to be warm, since, I told myself, 'It's April!' But April in New England can quickly turn from flowers to flakes - there was a snow squall only last week! It was quite chilly, but consider this an occupational hazard of the model - you'll always be either too warm or too cold, it seems.

The place looked as if it housed the homeless at night - a few bottles, both water and alcoholic, littered the place, and a spare blanket and lost, trampled shirt was left forlornly on the gravel. It was actually a large, self-enclosed staircase, through which the wind whistled, and at the top of the staircase was a wire overpass to the nearby highway. Running parallel to the highway were the old railroad tracks. Down by the railroad tracks was a dark tunnel, unlit and black; along the walls were several bright friezes of aqua and pink graffiti.

So you might be wondering, why would lolitas go anywhere near this destination? Shouldn't we be frequenting historic mansions, or rose gardens, or gilt theatres?

The concept is juxtaposition. By contrasting the harsh images of urban decay and city ruins, the sweet and idealized look of lolita comes out all the stronger. Rather be a paper doll in a dollhouse, a juxtaposition photoshoot opts for a punch of difference - the same as white on black.

The idea to me has a little dystopian fairytale feel to it as well - I picture a world ruined by humans and war, or perhaps plague, where the lolita has somehow survived, and finds herself wandering a desolate landscape of broken skyscrapers and empty highways. The image has always been very melancholy and beautiful to me, so perhaps that is why I enjoy urban decay lolita photoshoots. I wonder if this hypothetical, alternate-universe lolita is a visitor of time or space, or a native, and what she thinks of the sunlight lacing through the rusted metal, or the acid rain casting eerie iridescent puddles on the cracked concrete.

I'm not from the city myself, but a lot of lolitas are - you might even say that lolita was born in an urban landscape, as it does come from Tokyo by origin. The two seem at home with each other, in their contrast. There is something very natural about a lolita on a sidewalk or curb, even more so than to find her in a castle of gracing a manicured lawn. The latter is like an immigrant's native child returning to the old country; but the former is like a flower at home in transplanted soil, the place it had grown from: the cracks of the sidewalk.

Labels: photopost

posted by Victoria Suzanne @ 6:42 PM