Sakura

The modeling shoot: Sakura

Six images in a tree-lined park, with Sakura as the only human presence among a row of cherry trees in bloom. The light is the low, warm light of late day: it comes from the side, filters through the branches and ignites the edges of her hair, while the grass remains divided between strips of sun and wide areas of cool shadow. The background almost always dissolves into soft patches of pink, white and green, with the dark trunk of a tree entering the frame as a vertical element.

The dark-ground kimono, covered in red, orange and ochre flowers, and the waist sash striped in light blue, white and red form the chromatic centre of the whole set: the same reds return in the parasol painted with peonies and in the lipstick, while the green of the grass and the pastel tones of the blossoms surround them. The palette stays warm, with amber dominants and shifts towards dusty pink.

In the full-length frames the figure occupies space openly: arms extended, wide sleeves falling like drapery, the body seeming to stop halfway through a movement rather than to pose. In one image the open parasol hides her almost entirely, leaving only the face emerging beyond the red edge; in another she leans against a trunk, in a low, gathered position, her gaze turned upward among the branches.

Two close portraits change the rhythm: the face fills the frame, the dark hair loosely and untidily gathered, the neck marked by a dark ribbon, the background reduced to blurred flowers and circles of light. The expression is directed at the lens, still, with shadows slightly carving the cheekbones. Overall the set alternates distance and closeness, a figure immersed in the landscape and the detail of the face, keeping constant the season, the warmth of the light and the same range of colours.