Nature’s Symphony – Photographs in quarantine

“All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered.”
Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

I used to photograph wild roses, butterflies and birds when I first started spending time with a camera (not really a fancy or a professional one), walking curiously around gardens and parks, in Rome. It was a happy time, that, a time of exploration, of wonder and creation. Somehow, despite the sadness and loneliness we are all experiencing now, I feel similar emotions and desires are filling my days. And infact, here I am, again, taking photos to flowers and insects, browsing among the clouds of the sky and the branches of the trees, asking the nature for a bit of her strenght and wisdom.

©2020 Flavia Catena

Freckles and flowers

The purity of youth, the candid beauty of flowers, and the perfection of the painted freckles make this beauty shoot one of my favourite work so far! Thanks a lot to my team, to the talented make up artist Micaela Congia, to the great hair stylist Giulia Piras and to the sweet model Bella Ford, from M+P Models, for helping me taking these honest, natural and romantic images!

©2019 Flavia Catena

Jessica – Beautiful little things

Precious is the flower that stays hidden in a corner, unseen, but yet beautiful, when the sun makes it shine at the end of the day. Precious is the flower that has no name, the one shown and sold on the street, the one offered as a present, the one kept inside a book, dried, as a memory. Precious is your heart which remembers this all.

Some lovely photos from a test shoot with the gorgeous Jessica Fuhrmann, from Linden Staub. Make up: Ceci Wu.

©2019 Flavia Catena

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Autumn as a second spring

“Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.” Albert Camus

Model: Virginia Tozzi

Secret garden

“A garden to walk in and immensity to dream in – what more could he ask? A few flowers at his feet and above him the stars.” Victor Hugo, Les Misérables
From a visit to the Botanic gardens of Oxford with my Lomo Instant.

©2017 Flavia Catena

 

Dreamless

I am stuck under my dreams, so down that I cannot even see them, as I used before, so far in time that I cannot touch them when they fly before my eyes. It is still night when the sun rises. Behind the eyelids a shadow swings and guides my body ahead.

©2017 Flavia Catena

Model: Mariarita A.

 

 

 

Hula hoops

“Making up for lost time?”
“Yes,” I say.
“A lot of things were stolen from my childhood. Lots of important things. And now I have to get them back.” Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the shore

Thanks a lot to Amy Hunter for modelling again for me, and for wearing two beautiful pinafores she designed and made!

©2016 Flavia Catena

 

Ophelia on the grass

“Heaven! Love! Freedom! What a dream, oh poor crazed Girl!
You melted to him as snow does to a fire;
Your great visions strangled your words
– And fearful Infinity terrified your blue eye!”, from Ophelia by Arthur Rimbaud.

Model: Liana VL

 

Similarities

There are similarities between the human heart and what is part of the nature that are only visible to the mind when it stops to think and it starts to feel.

Thanks to Megan for being a great model!

©2015 Flavia Catena

 

Frozen garden

An improvised and last minute post! I still can’t believe it is snowing here in Sicily, just one mile away from the beach. I was so excited this morning when I saw the snow falling down to the ground from a transparent sky, that I could not stay in bed, and despite the cold and my unsuitable outfit, I went out to take a few pictures. What a magic end of the year!

©2014 Flavia Catena