Out of Water // Baby Belly Session

In September I asked my expecting friend out for a photographic adventure. Actually, I visited her at home, in her bathroom, in her bath. There's many inspiring images floating on Pinterest you know - it was time (and opportunity) to try out recreating them and let some fantasy flow. Here's what we did: got some milk, got some milk powder, got some blossoms, green branches and a light sheer dress. The bath tub full of warm milky water covering pinkish flowers looked so tempting and magical - here's a few bits of hour cooperative result.

Pregnancy is a very personal matter, if not THE most personal mater at all - no need to say or question it. That's why I am so overall happy and grateful to the women and couples, who open up to this topic - sharing their birth stories, strengths, pain, difficulties, joy, complication or advice. All together they are making the topic of birth more human again, bringing the experience of birth back to it's natural roots and unbinding it from a purely clinical matter. Even for the ones who are more selective with sharing - I know they feel better about themselves and their decisions after getting inspired by private stories made public on personal blogs. I know that they get calmer about the yet unknown first-time body experiences, becoming a parent at the same time and the emotional firework or overload it brings with it.

I am grateful that the action of birth in general has very much changed since I myself was born in the Soviet regime Lithuania; that here in Germany there's a freedom of choice how to give birth to ones child in comparison to nowadays outdated Lithuanian limitations where private midwifes are haunted like black magic evil witches; and I am grateful for having inspiring friends who don't mind opening up, sharing their beautiful stories and contributing to a general knowledge of natural beauty and a lifestyle free of disgust, scepticism or body alienation.

Here are a few stories, that completely opened up my view and let my knowledge grow immensely. I will forever be thankful to these courageous people around the globe for letting me follow their stories and set myself free in my yet to come future decisions: the story of Alba, the story of Roo, the wonderful short movie Mild Witchcraft and the photographer of births / mother of three Georgia.

The topic and all the grand magic behind pregnancy and birth will always be my kind of topic which I never get tired of being curious about. Photographing it is yet another terrain waiting for the opportunities to be explored.

The Girl who was a Fox

one good side about living on an island far far away is that friends want to eventually come and see it and see me. Helgoland seems to be an island where 'no one has ever been but was always curious to come and check it out'. as i am here right now, some adventurous friends dare it and take a weekend or more off for a short discovery trip. when i get visits here, they mostly are intense and very cozy, i show around the island, tell stories about baby seals, show the ocean horizon all around this tiny little island. we bond on this island much more, more intense than while i was still living on the mainland, where on weekends eventually you come together for a party or a dinner, but rarely experience a face to face time over a few days. then i bring them back to the boat and wave good bye. Maren came to visit me last weekend. she is a girl fox and she writes beautiful songs. i first met her outside of a café in Bochum where she was knitting a big fluffy Iceland style pullover, as she had spent lots of time living in Iceland. the second time i saw her in a sweater with a fox picture. i immediately had to show her my fox earrings i was wearing those days. on the last day of her Helgoland visit the sun was tickling my bedroom wall. we got inspired and played around for the sake of beauty.

for Maren's music you can check her page Girl and the Fox or visit her facebook site.

her left arm/shoulder tattoo was made by the Expanded Eye art duo, also to be found on facebook and instagram.

her right lower arm tattoo the leaf was designed by... me! <3 the ones who know me have seen it many times changing on my arm or had been given one, too, with my legendary permanent CD marker. since 2012 random examples one, two, three, four, five are to be found on my old blog. Maren eventually got it inked in Iceland.

ps:

“Just that,” said the fox. “To me, you are still nothing more than a little boy who is just like a hundred thousand other little boys. And I have no need of you. And you, on your part, have no need of me. To you, I am nothing more than a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But if you tame me, then we shall need each other. To me, you will be unique in all the world. To you, I shall be unique in all the world …”

Photography Adventure #3: Meadow Magic

From my left way up to the dark sky and down on my right I see the borders of our galaxy. The milky way all blooming in an August nights gloom. I live my dream - I live at the sea. Not only at the sea - I live IN the sea. Helgoland isn’t set at the water, it is far away in the north sea and contains out of sea shores as it is such a tiny piece of land. Often I make a late night run or walk around the island just to remember where I am and what my personal paradise feels like. while letting some music on my earphones give the rhythm to my steps, with my hips I start invisibly dancing. The beauty and whole sense of living here is to have the treasure just seconds away from the home door. It is above fantastic to be able to reach the beach and escape to the meditation zone within minutes.

When I go out past sunset it is like going to my very own personal Church. Here is where in my mind I pray in positive vibrations rather than thoughts, and above all I sense gratefulness. Here I sense - God remembers what I crave for, and I don’t really need to think in sentences. Stars replace candles, last bits of the setting sun replace all the golden framed imagery and the the smell of salted waves seals the whole deal of sacredness.

My Church feels more like a safety zone that way. I remember my own dreams and my real me doesn’t have to hide anymore neither fit in some kind of shapes.

The lighthouse scans the sky in ever same steps reminding us of how far away we actually are. The windmills in the far north join my earphone music with their collectively blinking red lights.

When I start heading home I am clean and free again. Super free, filled with air and freedom for the eye in such a tiny closed pinch of land miles and miles away from mainland. No real place to escape, and yet feeling more free and connected than ever.

How ever life goes on and no matter how much longer I stay here, this island will always stay the place for me, where I found peace and for a few seconds there decoded the sense of life.

Photos underneath of when Indre Winterrain was visiting and we went out for more photographic adventure.