Walpurgis Night is April 30th each year, the night before the pagan festival of Beltane. In Germany, Medieval and Renaissance tradition held that during Walpurgis Night (Walpurgisnacht), witches celebrated their sabbath and evil powers were at their strongest. On this night, the witches meet on Brocken, the highest peak of the Harz Mountains in central Germany. Villagers would light fires on the hillsides to protect themselves and their stock. In Bavaria, it is sometimes called Hexennacht, literally meaning “Witches Night”.
The Shoot
Our concept for our Myth and Magic shoot was thus; Morticia Addams had invited several friends to dinner to celebrate the witches sabbath. Her guests are three witches, a vampire family, the Grim Reaper, and Morticia’s serving girl Dorothy. This was the largest cast I had put together since our Addams Family shoot.
Morticia is a witch, and her family tree can be traced back to Salem, Massachusetts. She is the matriarch of the mysterious and decidedly odd Addams family. Slim, with ashen skin and long flowing straight black hair, Morticia commonly wears black hobble dresses. These match her hair, with tightly form-fitting, with a fringe of octopus-like cloth “tentacles” at the lower hem. As is her tradition, on Walpurgis Eve, she is at her ancestral holiday home high in the Bavarian hills. Seeing that dinner is planned, Morticia has invited her dearest friends to meet with her over a few fresh “wines” to celebrate the Hexennacht.
Morgana is fresh from meddling in King Arthurs business. She is the possessor of the Philosopher’s Stone that grants eternal life. Morgana is also the oldest and most experienced witch to grace Morticia’s table.
Marie Catherine Laveau
Anjel Taylor as Marie Catherine Laveau
Known as the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans, Marie is a voodoo practitioner. A beautiful and wise woman, she holds the rank of the Supreme witch.
Sybil Leek
Emily Reinhard as Sybil Leek. Credit: Image by Carole Perry
Sybil was taught witchcraft as a child by Alastair Crowley. One of the most famous witches in modern history, she has written many well-known books such as Diary of a Witch, Sybil Leek’s Book of Herbs, and Star Speak: Your Body Language from the Stars.
Marius is a 2000-year-old Vampire. He was born in Rome in 30BC. Abducted by Druids when he was approximately 40 yrs old, he was made into a vampire by the God of the Grove just before the Feast of Samhain. In 1482 during a visit to Rome, he fell in love with the Venetian courtesan Bianca Solderini, subsequently making her a vampire.
Bianca Solderini
Jess Garrett as Bianca Solderini
Bianca is an Italian vampire born in Florence, Italy, in the late 1470s. A Venetian courtesan, she is the partner of Marius, her maker.
The Grim Reaper is the Lord of Death. He carries a scythe that was traditionally used to harvest crops. However, in his case, he uses it to harvest souls. His signature and most mysterious skill is separating souls from the body. Most stories claim that this spectre’s mere presence will begin to draw the soul from the body. Then, when you take your last breath, he collects your soul with a well-practiced cut of his razor-sharp blade.
Harry the ‘ghoul’
Jett Kierl as Harry
Harry, who can only remember his first name, has been taken in by Bianca and Marius after finding him in Hogwarts’ ruins.
Dorothy the Possessed
Oz wasn’t quite like it’s been portrayed in books, and Dorothy has a devil of a time getting home. Morticia has provided her with a haven while she ‘recovers’.
Brooklyn Garrett as Dorothy
Our Set
Our backdrops were four large polyester velvet backdrops. We set up two creating a corner of the interior – with our table in front, another two off to the side depicting the house’s exterior – and the forest they walked through to get there. The table was set with candles, potions, a spellbook and various drinks.
Following on from our Speakeasy shoots at Victorian Photographers Collective, I organised a Night Circus shoot for Halloween. The theme was a darker ‘Halloween’ take on The Night Circus, a 2011 novel by Erin Morgenstern
I sourced costumes, gathered models and makeup artists and with the help of other admins of VPC and members, we set up sets and props while the models were getting made up. Then the fun started! 🙂
Emily was the dancer.. spinning her wiles
We had three clown girls.. and their leader, the evil master clown. Emily had studied ballet so she brought her ballet shoes along and went ‘on point’ for us.
“The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not.”
The Gatekeeper was Jess. She checks out the prospective victims and allows them entry.
“We lead strange lives, chasing our dreams around from place to place.”
Heath was our evil clown. We had to lead him around by the hand all day as he was blind inside that mask hehehe.
And there are never really endings, happy or otherwise.
The Night Circus
Lisa was our lure to keep the unwitting visitors. One look at the ‘lure’ and they were lost forever.
“Life takes us to unexpected places sometimes. The future is never set in stone, remember that.”
the night circus
“But dreams have ways of turning into nightmares.”
The Night Circus
You are all so welcome
All quotes are from The Night Circus by Erin Morgenstern
Following on from earlier concept shoots I took part in, Deanne and I decided to run one of our own. But what theme? We had several ideas in mind, but the inspiration came one night when I was at a light painting shoot with Bill and Deanne Holmer from Melbourne Light Painting. Bill was attaching sparklers for the next shot, and he put the torch in his mouth to free his hands up for the job. Uncle Fester!! And we had our Addams Family theme.
Deanne and I set about gathering the photographers. With that in place, we came up with a cast of characters, with some photographers doubling as models. We decided to schedule the shoot for November to the plethora of props and the like avail as it was post-Halloween.
The Addams Family Revisited – with Thing
Preparations
Over the coming months, Deanne created and sewed Addams Family costumes, plus making available a wedding gown we could use. So our cast grew to include a bride and groom. Then we had to have a bridesmaid (I never know when enough is enough 😉 Carole sourced props from op shop crawls, I made some at home, we hunted around for a suitable studio, found one, then it fell through, so moved onto the next one.
At the last minute, we ‘lost’ our groom, so we did a cast change with our current Lurch swapping to the groom role and Bill stepping in as the new Lurch. Roy even went as far as shaving off his beard for the Gomez role! All in all, a lot of fun and well worth the work that went into it. though it will be a few months before I attempt another 🙂
