Shooting with Delight Worthyn (2017): Part I

Our first shoot with Delight Worthyn was on a chilly, drizzly day in October 2014 (see the story here). Our second shoot with Delight Worthyn was on a chilly, drizzly day in April 2017. There was no difference in the weather, but the background had changed from the industrial detritus of Holyoke, MA to New Haven, CT’s historical homes and luscious pink cherry blossoms. The goals had changed as well- unlike the previous shoot, we weren’t aiming for a commercial lookbook, we were all there to make art. Delight had spent months turning mosquito netting into brightly colored fluffy dress confections, and creating all sorts of unusual props- a paperless parasol, a painted chair, leather opera gloves- TJ and I were just there to capture it all as creatively as possible.

I knew right away I wanted to cast Alena, not only because she is tall enough to carry layers upon layers of colorfully dyed mesh, but because she somehow always manages to look elegant. That was important, because I knew everything else involved would be working against elegance and pushing us toward clownish, especially because I was dead set on recycling the blonde afro wig I’d once bought to literally create a clown. I wanted otherworldly, but beautiful, and with the help of our makeup artist LaToya Santos, I think we pulled it off.