Behold, friends: Luxa Strata as Aphrodite.
Luxa Strata, on the off chance that you don’t recognize the name, is a chaote, artist, magician, and community leader. She is the host of the Lux Occult podcast and runs the Green Musheen Discord server and is knee-deep in a stunning number or related and unrelated magical projecets. You can check her various works out for yourself via her Linktree.
I’m so excited to finally be releasing these images from the third of July’s four photoshoots, the first of the two that I did with Luxa. As you may recall from my last two two, the Lavender Laura images, this adventure started with a post in Luxa’s Green Musheen Discord server, in which I asked for magical collaborators for a few occult-themed photoshoots. Of the themes I suggested, Laura was interested in showing off her “Wizard Rizz” and in conjuring spirits for me to try to capture in some old-school spirit photography. Luxa was also interested in spirit photography, and in embodying Aphrodite in this, my second devotional image shoot for that goddess.
Luxa visited me here in Kansas City in the last week of July, flying in Thursday afternoon and leaving Tuesday morning. The whole week was an adventure in and of itself, including a meet and greet with my Lunar Shenanigans Crew, a trip out to Gaea Retreat Center, a great deal of good food, and a whole lot of absolutely fantastic conversation and comradery.
We shot these images on Friday night, using two sets and four-ish costume changes. As usual, I shot with my trusty Nikon d3200; that night I used my Nikor 18-140 zoom lens. We shot in my home studio which was … just a little warmer than was comfortable, that day, at least for me. The lighting was more of a challenge than it should have been because I had misplaced the stands for my studio lights. I ran out of stamina before Luxa and I ran out of ideas, so I’m a little sad about all the images we could have made, but we also shot enough images – 218 – that editing them down to the final 54 was a more than adequate challenge.
Luxa called the goddess Aphrodite into herself. We opened with Armed Aphrodite, with a red cloak and a gladius for a bit of a Roman vibe, and just got slowly more sensual and less dressed over the course of the shoot.
Overall, I’m very pleased with how the shoot went. Luxa was a delight to work with, and the images came out fantastically. Culling the set was a real challenge. I’m still learning to use my new software (you may remember that I ditched Adobe back in April and started using DXO PhotoLab7 in July), so there’s the frustrating knowledge that these could be better if I were only a little more familiar with my tools, but … that’s the artist’s life in the age of subscription software, I guess.
Luxa, herself, had this to say about the shoot:
“When these pictures were taken, I was going through a transitional period having to do with leaving several toxic relationships. I had joined a magic group which turned out to be incredibly abusive and misogynistic. Although I had escaped that situation, I was still dealing with the heatbreak and other fallout. The experience of posing for these pictures helped me reconnect with something I had been suppressing; a “golden shadow” I’d been hiding away for safety’s sake. It was an important thing to rediscover, and I feel deep gratitude for having had the opportunity to do so. My overall takeaway from the shoot is that the Goddess is real, She is powerful, and She is here; in this world.”
I hope you all enjoy these images as much as we do.
