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Fedorov is a man known for his imagination. He goes the distance
when it comes to expressing his innermost visions. When he works
with a model, he is the master at helping her realize his reality,
bringing her body to the edge of his fantasies. And Ashanti is one
of his favorite models to work with because she’s so willing
to go there.
Another reason that Fedorov prefers Ashanti over the many other
young models willing to pose naked for him is more personal than
just preferring the way she works. Yes, Ashanti is pliable and talented
when it comes to posing and emitting a requested emotion of flair.
But there’s something more to it than that for Fedorov. To
put it simply, Ashanti inhabits his dreams.
As we said, the man works in mysterious ways, and one such way is
that he consults his fantasies and dreams for inspiration. One such
dream features a nymph-like creature that dances naked for him in
a field. He is tied to a tree and there are flames all around. The
more the nymph dances, the higher the flames go and the closer they
come to burning him. Fedorov says he has always equated the nymph
with a kind of demon who is conjuring forth the fires of hell to
seduce Fedorov to even greater degrees of inspiration. For inspiration,
says the artist, comes from the underworld, not from heaven.
When Fedorov first say Ashanti at a casting call, he says his spine
tingled and he almost blacked out. There, he thought, is the demon
from my dreams. The same body, the fame face, the same way of moving.
He almost expected to feel the flames as she stepped into the camera
frame. And Ashanti, unknowingly, played into this image of herself.
She requested a red light be used for her test shoot. She looked
“wickedly” and “devilishly” into the lens.
She smiled with a certain degree of mischievousness that both aroused
and frightened the photographer.
And that is why Fedorov named this series “Diabolique.”
For the devilish ways of the young Ashanti. If you look at her smile,
or the way her hair stands up in little horns on occasion, or the
perfect curvature of her young body, you can almost see the devil’s
handiwork. And it’s then you agree with the artist –
beauty comes from the underworld.
Join Met-Art to see this remarkable series.
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