Calcifer's Curse 1

A black and white film processed photograph of a person in a brightly lit room. The person is light skinned with dark hair past their shoulders, shown from the waist up. They are looking over their right shoulder; their torso and left arm are blurred by the movement. Behind them against a white wall is a black built-in rectangular fireplace with small flames rising from its base. The glass on the fireplace reflects the person's head and the room. The photo is slightly grainy.

A black and white film-processed photograph of a fireplace. The fireplace is long, black, and rectangular, starkly different from the white wall it is set in. Small flames rise from its base. The photo is grainy and slightly blurred.

This is a sequence of images titled “Calcifer’s Curse” or A black and white film-processed photograph of a person reaching for a fireplace. The fireplace is black and set into a white wall with stark contrast. Flames rise from the base. From the right, someone is reaching their arm towards it. The flames hover above their outstretched fingers. The photograph is grainy.

A dark black and white film-processed photograph of the silhouette of a person reaching towards a built-in fireplace. There is a stark contrast between the bright flames and the very dark surroundings. From the right, the silhouette of a person’s face is barely visible, and their arm is reaching towards the flames. The flames illuminate their forearm. The photograph has a grainy texture.

A very blurry black and white film-processed photograph. The bottom left of the photo is white flames in a black built-in fireplace. The top left and the entire right side are blurred-out shapes in various shades of gray. The photograph has a grainy texture.

This is a sequence of images titled “Calcifer’s Curse” or “カルシファーの呪い” it follows the narrative of Calcifer from Hayao Miyazaki’s “Howl’s Moving Castle”. This project was inspired by the work of Duane Michals and his sequence work.

A naked man sitting on a stool facing a bedside. He has tanned skin, a black buzzcut, bright green face paint on the lower half of his face, and over it, a white covid face mask. He is seated and also hunched over, staring down at his reflection in a small mirror in his hands. A medium-sized brown dog is sleeping on the yellow concrete floor to his right.

A person dressed in drag, in a dressing room. They have tanned skin, long dark brown hair that is whipped with curls, and are wearing a stylish pink silk/satin robe. They are shown in profile view, kneeling in a chair while leaning down to look into a square mirror. The mirror is situated atop a small table that is covered in various makeup items. Behind the person is a rack of clothes and another small table holding more beauty items including hairspray, wet wipes, and vaseline. The wall at the back of the room is covered by a multicolored, floral pattern curtain.

A woman laying in a purple bed. The angle of the photo captures only an edge of the bed and the woman’s legs, but focuses more on the large white closet at the bedside, which has a large mirror at its center which the woman can be seen through. She has tanned skin, long dark brown hair, and is wearing black underwear with a matching black bra. She is lying on her back with her knees bent, and her head is turned, looking into the reflection. A large gated window is at the head of the bed, which leaves of a tree can be seen through.