Beauty & Fear: IV

And finally.  After months of working against forces beyond my control, I finished this series!  I have had this plan (and this dress) since the summer, but we didn't get to shoot till December!  It was absolutely freezing, and poor Kendra had to lie on the frosted ground in the costume I had picked out for the summer. I was lucky enough to find a (rather random) patch of perfectly green foliage that was reminiscent of summer, and I finally had the chance to finish my series.

Model: Kendra Ozanick-Vanderhill

MUA: Alicia Marie

 

This death is less obvious than most of the others.  This girl was not very bright. Thinking she new her way around her families cabin out in the country, she decided to wonder of the path-to an unfortunate end. 

I had originally planned on using a fox in the foreground, but after the acquisition fell through, I ended up photographing paper butterflies from a coloring book and photoshopping them in later.

 Did you know that butterflies eat decomposing flesh?  I didn't either. 

I think this was a great finish to this series.  The butterflies eating the corpse add another layer to the beauty and fear that come with death.   Through this series, I have found that it is not the perfection that is shown in the paintings of death that make them beautiful-but the serenity and peace that can be found in the scenes.  I have found that the stark reality of death adds a different kind of beauty, like a tingle down ones spine, this fear can be twisted into a sort of beauty in itself-one of the reality that we all face and yet seek so much to avoid.