Who is Anna Krohnistic?

Anna Krohnistic is a Ukrainian countess, a Golden Age silent starlet, a voodoo priestess, a glittering showgirl - she is the stage alter-ego of Anna Swiczeniuk. 

After working hard on getting our DJ Duo, The Roustabouts, up and running I felt that I needed a punchier name that would really sum up the many guises I take on.

I'm a fan of pretentious and tongue-in-cheek pseudonyms (my partner in crime does work under the name Markabre Charade, after all) that will hopefully bring a slight smile when read!

I'll still be working on my photography under the name Anna Swiczeniuk, but DJing, performances and modelling fall under the reign of Anna Krohnistic. 

Giveaway: Amore de Mori

Some of you may be familiar with Amore de Mori, if not, all will be revealed!

Amore de Mori is the brand encompassing the work of inspiring British artist Bonnie Wood. Loosely explained as taxidermy and osteological adornments, Bonnie's projects have expanded over the years, from her first collections of beautiful accessories created out of or including bones, feathers and fur to a wide range of creations. 

Alongside her Amore de Mori pieces she also creates larger taxidermy work under the name of Sleep and has recently opened an online boutique, Once, which features more affordable pieces of wunderkammer. Like all of her work, each piece in the Once boutique is handmade and completely one-of-a-kind, including items created in collaboration with other illustrators and artists.

Searching on Etsy for "taxidermy accessories" gives all kinds of hideous results, mainly pieces that use wonky or over-stuffed taxidermy just for the sake of using it. Of course, there are many issues as to where the animals came from, and the ethical issues of taxidermy used as fashion. Personally, I feel that the beauty of animals shouldn't be wasted, which is why I am comfortable wearing vintage fur (much of which has been in my family for decades). There is a strong difference between Bonnie's work and many of the pieces on Etsy; the care and attention gone into her presentation transports the dead into second life, angelic and classic. The Sleep art pieces could easily stand up to the work of popular taxidermy artists such as Polly Morgan and Angela Singer.

Below are a few of the photographs I have taken either featuring Amore de Mori pieces, or in collaboration with Bonnie.

Self portrait, 2008

 Self portrait, 2010

Product shot for the Memento Mori collection

If you would love to get hold of a piece of Amore de Mori artwork, you could be in luck! Bonnie is running an amazing giveaway across her facebook and tumblr!

 

The giveaway consists of 3 stunning prizes, the first being Garcier and Dalia, a one of a kind taxidermy artwork. There is even a story behind these conjoined chicks, and being a wannabe carny, theres nothing I love more than stories of Louisiana hoodoo, fortune tellers and spit-and-sawdust carnival freakshows. 

The second prize is the head of the dastardly villain that took Garcier's eye!

And the third prize, the preserved heart of Garcier and Dalia, presented as a gorgeous necklace in a coffin box. 

HOW TO ENTER

‘like’ the Amore de Mori facebook page and share the giveaway post here

OR

Follow the Amore de Mori tumblr and reblog the giveaway post here

Each time you share/reblog either on facebook or tumblr, you gain another entry. Therefore, the more you share, the more likely you are to win!

The competition closes when the Amore de Mori Facebook page reaches 1000 likes and the Amore de Mori tumbler achieves 500 followers.

The winner of the first prize will be the person with the most entries. The winner of second prize the person with the second highest number of entries and the winner of the third the person with the third highest number of entries!

The Mourning Widow

Surprisingly, I realised I hadn't really been in front of the camera for some time, so when Charlotte (RavenBlakh Photography) contacted me regarding a new shoot, I thought it was a good time to remedy this!

I had worked with her before, so I already knew she is talented! I find that I don't often model for others mostly because I don't think many photographers have a style that works well for me. I look for photographers with a distinct voice, which will work with my styling rather than just flat images where my styling pulls the image along. 

 This shoot was based on the theme of mourning, which instantly made me think of Amore de Mori's beautiful Memento Mori collection. I had a few pieces still with me after shooting the product shots for them:

Check out the rest at the Once boutique. I absolutely love this collection - I find Victorian Post-mortem photography fascinating and beautiful. Considering the amount of work, detail and originality of these pieces, I think they are more than worth the price. Perfect present for those with a bit of a morbid sense of humour ;)

 I also had the pleasure of borrowing a beautiful black corset and neck corset from Boom! Boom! Baby! who's work I've also shot years and years ago! Her corsets are an absolute work of art, and this one was in a beautiful thick leather. I love the shape that neck corsets create, which I think worked especially well for a slightly Victorian-esque shape.

The other parts of the outfit were pulled together from various bits and pieces from my wardrobe, including a bra from Playful Promises and a Kiss Me Deadly suspender belt. I put the wig together a few nights before, making poor Mr. Phrenology head into a drag queen.

And now, onto the results!

 Photography: Ravenblakh
MUA: Tabby Casto
Assistant: Carl Osbourn  

 

I'm so pleased with these images! There are even more amazing shots that you can see here!

Anatomy of a Heart: Playful Promises AW12 Lookbook

Two new products are almost ready to hit the Playful Promises boutique, which means I can show off a few more images from the AW12 Lookbook shoot! 

The location was actually a studio, believe it or not! I met Sarah and Mike at a club last year, and found that we actually tend to go to the same clubs quite a lot. They not only own but live in Area 44 studio, which is full of beautiful props and antiques. 

The above image features Ana from IMM in the beautiful Dominique Corset, which is available for pre-order now. The hair was done by Mutsumi and makeup by Cheyenne Raymond. Below is the Love Corset, which is also available to order now. I just found out that the vintage stitch detailing is done by hand - amazing! 

Creation Vs. Curation: Why removing credit is bloody rude.

I've had quite a few issues of late, concerning my photographs being used on blogs without credit or source, and even having the images altered. I use the word blog, however I have found the main issue to stem from tumblr users, where text, tags and a source link can easily be removed, and the user claim ignorance. 

I find my images desaturated, cropped; even as much as a watermark (which I rarely use) blurred out. I often attempt to send a private polite-but-stern message to the owner of the blog, asking them to remove the offending image, or (in the case that it isn't altered) credit not only myself but everyone involved in the image. I also often receive polite replies back, either asking for my permission to keep the image up in it's altered state, or an understanding "whoops, sorry" and agreement to put the credit back on. 

Sometimes, I receive replies that are either rude or a 'thanks but no thanks', claiming they are a curator and their blog is their gallery space. To quote one particular response, "Art will always remain more important than its artist." This response in particular, and my upset reaction to it, became quite a talking point, with opinions from both other artists and non-creatives.

To put it simply, my opinion is: posting an image to a blog without listing it's source or correct credit is not curation. No matter how visually appealing your blog looks.

A recent article on Gizmodo discusses this issue, and whether self proclaimed curators actually have a clue. Mark writes, ""Curation" is an act performed by people with PhDs in art history; the business in which we're all engaged when we're tossing links around on the Internet is simple "sharing."" 

You have found something, somewhere on the Internet, and you are essentially doing the same as poking your friend in the ribs and pointing at your screen. You have not created something remarkable, nor have you got the right to render the original creator anonymous in your single act of removing their credit. A true curator would take pleasure in allowing others to discover more through their collection (which is exactly why the curators code has been set up by those who are probably more neurotic than I am - I do love their tagline "Keeping the rabbit hole of the Internet open by honouring discovery"), allowing their viewers to click link through to link through to link, gathering more tidbits of information as they go.

But why do I care? Surely I'm just being egotistical, right? A recent issue with another photographer/model, Morgana, has shown that picking and choosing images on the Internet to use wherever you like can get you in deep shit. Thanks to someone who decided to use Morgana's photo to liven up (forgive the pun) a website about serial killers, some dimwit at the Daily Mirror ended up printing the image as part of a "Women who kill" feature. Luckily this all worked out in the end but it perfectly illustrates why attribution is vital, especially for journalists that take everything at face value.

I'll finish off with nicking, err… I mean.. sharing, another quote from the Gizmodo article:

"If people want to be celebrated for being smart or for having exceptional taste that's all fine and good, everyone can go right on congratulating one another in their little mutual admiration societies. But please spare the rest of us all this moralizing on why we should be giving people who share links anywhere near the same amount of credit we afford that singularly special act of original content creation."