Cajsa Lilliehook covers the best in virtual world screenshot art and digital painting
I have noticed an intriguing and beautiful style of SL fashion photography that deserves its own name. It features an avatar, sometimes two, floating among objects, flowers, birds, butterflies, or other ephemera. They are often in a distended position that suggests movement without regard to gravity. They are essentially romantic flights of fancy. For lack of a better name, I am calling them Floating Fashion Fantasies. (But your own suggestions are more than welcome in Comments.)
Here’s some of my favorites photographers of the genre on Flickr:
Coqueta Georgia is among the most iconic of these photographers. She embellishes her scenes beautifully, incorporating elements that complement her outfit and draws out details by echoing the colors or patterns. While trying to come up with a name, I considered Fantasies a la Coqueta, but the style seems more widespread than that term can capture. You can also see her work on her blog, El Ático de SL.
Iruki is another whose photostream is immediately recognizable for her floating fashion fantasies. She is very witty, incorporating sly bits of humor, such as having her avatar come out of a teapot like a kimono-clad genie while a macabre skeleton levers its way out as well. Her inspirations come from Japanese history, culture, and folklore, and are always fascinating. You can see this picture above also incorporates an element of the macabre, with a golden skeleton embracing the avatar and the innovative use of the gates that float behind.
Blanche Foxclaw also creates a beautiful tableau with objects that frame her avatar. She uses bold saturated colors and will sometimes shoot in more naturalistic settings on the ground, but her real métier is the fantastical. She blogs at Blanche Foxclaw’s Randomity. (Her consistent style is anything but random, so she must be referring to the fashions.)
ShaNaela shoots a mix of floating fantasies with more grounded imagery. She also does a lot of portraits that incorporate the floating fantasy embellishments. She uses light and shadow more than the other artists in this group.
Mery M has the most variety in her photo stream, shooting some cosplay photos, some child avatar photos, and of course, the floating fantasies. She has a blog, Meriluu’s Creativity World. Hamlet featured her fabulous Game of Thrones role-play in late July. (That picture was also chosen as Second Life’s Picture of the Day.) Mermaids, fairies, futuristic dolls, toddlers, and girls next door are all there on her stream.
Susanne Drechsler also has a blog, Susanne’s Ideas, where she shares her floating fantasies. She sometimes shoots herself with a friend, and sometimes obeys the laws of physics, sitting or standing on the ground. However, some of my favorite photos from her collection are her floating fantasies. She likes to embellish with flowers so her pictures are fairly naturalistic but then there are photos like this one as fantastical as anything.
Cajsa Lilliehook joined Second Life in 2007 and has been enjoying the art of SL ever since. Disliking the common practice of critiquing poor photos, she decided to highlight good ones and explain why they work in hopes of inspiring with praise instead of criticism. Follow Cajsa on Flickr, on Twitter or on her blog.
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