I DREAMT OF A MAN… WITH VYACHESLAV K

“I dreamt of a man / He fed me fine food / He gave me shiny things”. It’s one of the lines from the PJ Harvey song “Plants and Rags” that inspired this shoot with Vyacheslav K for the Lviv issue of Elska Magazine. But it’s not the line I went with for the title of the shoot. That was “The sun doesn’t shine down here in the shadows”. But why this old song at all?

When I first saw this apartment where I’d shoot Vyacheslav K, the array of pot plants caught my eye and rather literally I started thinking of songs with “plants” in the title. Rather simple and uncreative perhaps, but the mood actually suited the situation very well. Furthermore, he wanted to be nude but not fully exposed, so they made a more natural cover than clothes or a hand or a crop.

Vyacheslav is a hopeful young man, expecting perhaps more from life than he’s been getting, but maturely accepting his fate day by day whilst not yet abandoning hope. It’s a song that to me is rather macabre but still dreaming, like this lovely Ukrainian boy. There’s a sadness that I hope will fade with maturity, as well as a freeness that I hope no one can take away from him.

Elska Boy: Vyacheslav K

Photographer: Liam Campbell

Location: Lviv, Ukraine

Elska Magazine: Issue (01) Lviv

#LvivUkraine