Paris is (not) for lovers

Paris * March 2016

Four hearts beating are better than one. One Sacre Coeur is better than none.

And so, an expedition to crash Clara’s fashion week work trip turned into Jac & Adrienne hopping aboard turned into a pseudo-bachelorette gathering for Jac and a reunion for Adrienne and me because we met some 15 years ago (!!!) this coming summer in Paris. C’est a dire, this weekend was a fantastically welcome excuse to photograph the beauties in my life and absorb as much of them as possible before returning to Kosovo. Jac, Clara and I lived together for a year in 2011 and nostalgic images from our mornings and nights at 59 Kent Street in Brooklyn pierced every ounce of our Parisian fête. 

Chin chin to negronis, lavender drinks, a súper úber cool David Lynch underground society, unfiltered wine, Hotel l’Amour’s penis carpet (Oy!), Clément, bowls of butter, vintage fur, a transparent raincoat, croissants, croissants and croissants. Because sometimes a gal just needs three days in Paris with her favorites from home.  

Halo of Antlers

Prizren, Kosovo * February 2016 * 35mm

I met Ervina one chilly night over a dinner of hummus and falafel in a dimly light cafe. She's a writer and studies surrealism and she published her first book when she was 16 years old. And she wears glasses when she reads that make her eyes magnify so she's actually a bookish cartoon character which makes her even more ethereal. Ervina was insistent that I visit the charming city of Prizren in Kosovo, and I told her I would go if she came too. A few weeks later we took a bus 2 hours south of Pristina. Her friend drove us into the mountains that overlooked the cobblestoned city oozing with Ottoman history. We found an abandoned Serbian village and followed no particular road. 

Ervina has this way about her that is infectiously inspiring. I brought a string of lights, a handmade mirror from Istanbul and a camera. It all came together rather effortlessly while we chased twilight. Needless to say, I was channeling my best Frida Kahlo. At the time, I had been watching some pretty dark cinema from Eastern Europe, namely the 1970s Czechoslovakian film Valerie and Her Week of Wonders, which undoubtedly influenced these shots. "She [most definitely] prances through the sky."

To read Ervina's work, see her website