bodies,
new & strange
my friend Saachi and I have always found ourselves in the same boat, somehow. whenever i need a companion in my sadness, i text Saachi, who is almost always feeling the same.
we don't talk about how to ger better – we're past that point. we just suffer together.
she is also a brilliant writer. this project is a result of our trauma bonding after saachi sends me what she writes. while i did the photography, saachi sent over a few things she wrote – and this baby was born.
this project turned out to be more impromptu than i had originally imagined. when i first thought about the concept, i had texted my friend Uzair Shaikh, who later became the assistant on this project.
both of us agreed that Saachi had an energy around her that made us think about her a lot. i was scared to ask her to be my muse but she very quickly agreed.
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we agreed that we wanted to portray a sort of "Madwoman In The Attic", "The Bell Jar" aesthetic. we had long pondered on metaphors in the literary works.
it very quickly ended up being an "I Love Dick" by Chris Kraus & "Metamorphoses" by Ovid (which is where the title comes from) inspired.
the text above has been written by Saachi about a friend that both of us had that we no longer talk to.
I read this after he had broken our hearts and this worked as some sort of closure. I will never forgive him. Saachi said she would.
to fully channel Chris Kraus, we started compiling letters, diary entires & anecdotes from our real life to use for this project. all the text is evidence of something that happened to us at some point in our life.
an email sent by mistake. to a blocked contact.
this project felt like a prayer.
Direction & Photography: Parnika Agarwal Model & Writer: Saachi Gupta Assistant: Uzair Shaikh