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Between The Devil And The Deep Sea

Alexey Nikishin

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Photographer: Martijn Senders Styling: Richard Schreefel at Angelique Hoorn Management Hair: Blanca Murcia for Kevin Murphy at Angelique Hoorn Management Makeup: Yvonne Nusdorfer for NARS Cosmetics at Angelique Hoorn Management Models: Julie at Touche Models, Columba A. & Daan A. at Brooks Modeling Agency Assistant photographer: Leonie Van Vliet To me, fashion is not only about wearing beautiful clothes. It’s about renewal and expressing who you are. The fashion industry is one of the biggest industries in this world and with my pictures I not only try to create something beautiful, but I also want to make statements and therefore reach a lot of people. And that’s exactly what I tried to do with this series, that I call Birds. The name is inspired by the worldly famous 1963 horror-thriller movie The Birds, directed and produced by Alfred Hitchcock. The Birds is about un unexplained violent bird attack on the people of Bodega Bay, California over the course of a few days. Where one bird can do no harm, they can be dangerous when together in a large group. The villagers are forced to unite to defend themselves agains a bird attack and ultimately drive them away. The movie was inspired by a real-life event, when residents of Capitola in California awoke one August morning in 1961 to find sooty shearwaters slamming into their rooftops and their streets covered with dead birds. Although it’s a classic film, I’ve never seen it before. Until about two years ago, when the stylist and good friend Richard, who also had a big role in this production, demanded me to watch it. That was also the year when The Birds deemed ‘culturally, historically and aesthetically significant’ by the United States Library of Congress, and selected for preservation in its National Film Registry. There’s one scene that is known to be iconic and I dedicated eight images to this particular scene, translating my vision into this modern world. In this scene, Melanie and Mitch Brenner (played by Tippi Hedren and Rod Taylor), seek refuge inside the family home of the Brenners when it’s being attacked by waves of birds that nearly breach barricaded doors and windows. They violently attack Melanie, trapping here in the room until Mitch rescues her.

Martijn Senders

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