We are the generation of excess. We can never get enough. Counteracting our excessive lifestyles with minimalism and spring cleaning, simplicity and downsizing, we find still that too much isn’t ever enough. Extremes are the pathways to other extremes. Addictions drive the world’s decisions. Money, sex, drugs, emotions. Is it possible to see happiness in a world fogged over by fixations? We mask addictions with other addictions. And the cycle repeats.
Photographer, Marc Nair arrived in Malta for a poetry competition and contacted me to collaborate on a shoot during his visit. The chemistry was incredible. We did this shoot in the streets of Valletta. Our goal was to capture the rawness and age of the city juxtaposed with the newness and modernity of this jumpsuit by local designer, Ritienne Zammit.
Walking around this city, you see and breath so much history that speaks of Malta’s hardships and trauma. I peek inside the oldest buildings and my imagination runs wild with the stories, past times, and life experiences that these walls have seen. Paint peels from surfaces as if it’s tired of trying to protect what’s inside. The rugged collage of disturbed walls behind Ritienne’s luxe designs is what makes this shoot something to remember.
Ritienne Zammit featured her Autumn/Winter 2017 collection, Je Suis, on the theme of addiction. Contrasting dollar signs add a pop-art twist to the graphics of Caravaggio’s famous painting, The Beheading of St John the Baptist, printed on the jumpsuit. Symbolic gestures of addiction stream throughout this collection as her bold graphics unveil the truth behind society and addiction.
Money can’t buy happiness but at least it can buy us new clothes.
Photography: Marc Nair
Styling: Ritienne Zammit
Makeup: Henry Galea
