Natus In Aeternum

Natus In Aeternum

I wanted to try something different for this one, to change the fairly consistent paradigm of creating images I have employed for a couple years now. As satisfying as an intricate piece can be to create, the desire to do something "simple" surfaces from time to time. Nevertheless, this one sat around for a few months unfinished.

The angle and the pose suggested birth always, but the setting and the content eluded me. I placed the model shot on top of cracked mud, a rocky landscape, dead fish bones, in water, anything I could think of, and nothing really clicked. The original pose was inverted, with the head facing down, so that was part of the block. Once I removed the environment entirely, something I rarely do, I had a much more blatant birth metaphor.

The final piece put in place was a shot I took of an ivy covered wall recently, and worked it into the model shot. It looked like a malignancy, it looked like a disease, but it also looked like a circulatory system, or something like a protective web. Either way, I had a piece that certainly resembled birth, but the interpretation is very much open-ended, free to whoever is viewing it.

In searching for a title, I focused on Latin terms related to birth, In Utero, for example, but in the end decided to translate "Forever Being Born" into Latin to keep the feel of the medical/Latin phraseology. In calling it this, I think my point was that there are aspects in our lives that are always in a state of growth, always gestating, and there is no end to this process. Creativity for me is always a state of development, always in utero, never reaching a final stage of development.

A Before and After version of this image can be seen on my Facebook page at: www.facebook.com/MichaelBilottaPhotography as well as on my website: www.michaelbilotta.com

I will be offering one-on-one Photoshop tutoring sessions online starting soon. Details and updates can be found on my Facebook page.

Model: Gilberto Mendez