My interpretation of the story of Cupid and Psyche, a love story
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The Inspiration
As a child, one of our main ways to categorize eachother was to use your literary interests. You were either a harry potter kid, a YA distopian fanatic, a wattpad warrior, or a greek mythology geek. While I dabbled around in a bit of everything, nothing stuck with me quite like greek mythology. Through tapping back into my inner child, I found the love story between Cupid and Psyche.
The Story
The story of Cupid and Psyche can be found in The Golden Ass by Apuleius. This early tale tells a timeless story of the jealousy, redemption, and the journey to divine union, something that resonated deeply with me at the time of discovery. To summarize, Venus was jealous of Psyche's beauty and ordered Cupid, her son, to make her fall in love with a monster. Sounds very Disney movie doesnt it. Cupid ends up falling for Psyche but their love is forbidden, however when has law ever stopped true lovers. Psyche was instructed to not look at Cupid, and Cupid was instructed to push Psyche towards destruction. In a rebellious act of love they both resisted and pursued eachother.
Lover's Eclipse
The story of Cupid and Psyche's prevailing love inspired me to create a my own version and show the beauty of black love which can often feel forbidden as well. The title "Lover's Eclipse" was inspired by how Cupid and Psyche were so close physically yet forced to be apart from each other, much like the sun and moon. In my imagination, the sun and moon are lover's who yearn for each other but are forced to be apart, only able to come together during an eclipse.
The use of cream backdrops and hand made garments represent the beautiful marble used to create greek statues, as well as the purity and innocence in their pursuit of one another. This story also struck a cord with me because it is also known as "The Metamorphosis". At the time, i was going through a metamorphosis of my own within my work. I wanted to go beyond basic portraiture and lean deeper into story telling. My goal with my photography has always been to do my inner child justice and bring visuals to the stories that have been on my heart. Love is a universal experience, whether it's the late 2nd century AD or 2025. There are forces at play that want to keep humans from experiencing love but it is our duty to not fall complacent to those forces and fight them, much like Cupid and Psyche did. In the end, fighting for love will always create healing and produce growth within ourselves and our societies.
year
2024
timeframe
16 days
category
Personal Project
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