Breaking Gender Norms

I loved the idea for this shoot from the start! A very typically masculine appearing dude - long hair, long beard, Rock Star, Wrestler - wants me to come up with a stereotypical feminine outfit and photography concept for him. This is just right up my alley!

For a long time I had wanted to do a Kimono shoot with a black background and a colorful outfit contrasting it. I had seen some gorgeous pictures of various women in a similar setting, and given that my client was coming to visit Japan, what could be more fitting?

Finding the right outfit, though, turned out to be a bit harder than I had hoped. Stefan, the client, didn’t have too much time to shop around and find a Yukata of the right fit and color. Also, we didn’t want to spent a fortune on the outfit.

So we met a few days ahead of the shoot to have a look at second hand Kimono shops around Asakusa. While the fit may not be perfect (Stefan is quite tall, especially compared to Japanese women) the Yukata we found is just beautiful and contrasts perfectly with the dark backdrop.

For hair and make-up I also organized a HUMA (Kenn, IG: @kennfk.makeup.artist ), who did an amazing job, and in about three hours transformed Stefan into a beautiful Geisha.

The pictures were originally supposed to be a part of Stefans project Twisted Gender Roles. Even though they haven’t found a place within the project yet, I is worth checking out. You can find out more about it here: https://www.juliag.at/twisted-gender-role/