Lilith & Morrigan

The cosplay shoot: Lilith & Morrigan

The images take place inside a ruined building: stone walls with peeling plaster, patches of render falling away, a bright doorway opening as the only source of direct light. Across this raw background lie halos of cool colour, violet and magenta on one side, blue and turquoise on the other, sliding over the walls and shifting in tone from frame to frame, while the ground stays sandy and neutral.

The two figures portrayed, nanami and Enid Raven, appear as Morrigan and Lilith. One has very long hair of a bright aqua green, a black corset with pointed white inserts, magenta gloves and tights traced with bat outlines, and large membranous purple wings that open behind her shoulders and legs. The other has lilac hair, a red dress with slipped straps, fuchsia gloves, and smaller dark pointed wings set on her head. The palette stays compact: pink, violet, cyan, with the red of the dress and the roses as the only warm accent.

In the wider frames the two are seated or leaning on a block of masonry and turn towards each other, a tray and a bunch of roses passing between their hands; the relationship between them looks confidential, almost conspiratorial, and the wings intertwine, taking up much of the available space. In the tighter portraits the aqua-haired figure occupies the centre of the frame, her gaze towards the lens or just to the side, her body gathered against the wall or stretched on the ground among the wings. The magenta-covered arms stand out as sharp lines against the grey of the stone.

The overall atmosphere is suspended and slightly unreal: a decaying setting, saturated colours, the theatrical presence of the costumes. The light from the back creates a milky veil that softens the contours and pulls the figures away from the real context of the ruin.