Eyes of the Zodiac – 2012

It began with the eyes

I am a portrait photographer. Perhaps I’m the only one who sees me that way, but that is how I feel. The eyes are the most important thing for me; I choose my models by them. That is why I decided to shoot this series of 12 portraits, each for a different sign of the zodiac. I am one of those who believe in the zodiac and see differences between its signs.

When, during another shoot, I took the shot presented here under the sign of Virgo, looking into the eyes sent a chill through me. I myself belong to this sign, and one look was enough and the idea was born. By the way, you may have noticed that precisely this photograph is lit differently from the others. For various reasons we tried to reshoot it three times, even with different light, and certainly it was excellent, but the virginal charm of that first one, which started everything, remained unsurpassed.

I’ve made a rod for my own back again

It started as an innocent game, an idea was born from one photograph and I had the feeling it would be quick and simple. I’ll shoot 12 identical portraits, the difference will be only in the eyes …

After a week I was half done. More precisely, I thought I had half behind me when it came. I photographed one model differently and liked it. All those I had photographed before her I often have around me, so I began to reshoot. At first no deadline pressed on me either. Then it dawned on me that spring is beginning and the sign of Aries opens the whole zodiac, which set the deadline. The work slowed down markedly, though, because coordinating 12 models is an almost superhuman feat. Someone was outside Prague, even outside Europe, another was limited by school and other time obstacles. In the end the whole thing took over 6 weeks – for me, an impatient Virgo, something terrible.

The signs and me

Besides twelve photographs, the Eyes of the Zodiac project brought me new views of old things. I know partnership harmonies and disharmonies, attraction, understanding with various signs. But never before had I dealt with the connection between my photographing and the signs of individual models.

Right at the start I realized interesting things – among my models some signs are represented so abundantly that it was hard to choose. Conversely, other signs I almost or entirely lacked. Not that I didn’t know them or hadn’t worked with them in the past, but among the current models I am surrounded by they simply aren’t there. I probably have most Scorpios, Virgos and Aquarians around me, fewest Sagittarians, Leos and Cancers.

I soon found the reason. It isn’t that women in the sign of Scorpio would be prettier, nicer or more approachable than, say, women in Leo. It’s the mutual combination of both signs, where communication with someone is easier, the chemistry works better and so on. This was confirmed when I talked to my colleagues and they too suddenly realized they had a similar situation, only perhaps with different signs around them than mine. Where I had a minimum of Leos, someone else had the vast majority. And so on …

How I chose

Simply – by the eyes. By a completely subjective feeling I have of the individual signs. Whether they were models or not wasn’t important at all; charisma and the expression of the eyes were the only criterion for me. Side by side are professional models such as the Hungarian Playmate Bea Hargitai and others you know from many of my other photos, as well as girls who may never have posed, or who are used to standing on the other side of the camera, like the photographer Ludmila Foblová.

With the signs I have few of around me it was relatively easy; it was enough for me to see the given sign in the model’s eyes the way I know it. Occasionally I had to search a little.

Paradoxically it was harder where I had, say, ten different models in one sign to choose from. One prettier and more charismatic than another… I ruled out any beauty contest and went by first impression – I approached the one I instantly pictured as a representative of that sign. Even so it wasn’t simple at all, and I may have spent hours wondering whether my choice was right. I am convinced it is.

I found Sagittarius in the distant Siberian taiga, Capricorn in the Moldovan hills, Pisces, Aries, Virgo and Scorpio around the Urals, Cancer in the icy streams of Ukraine, Taurus on the cover of Hungarian Playboy. Gemini I wanted close at hand, although closest of all I have Libra. Leo I hunted for so long that it hunted me down itself, and the dreamy curious Aquarius was lured in by her unmanageable desire to learn and discover …

How I shot

I’m not the first to decide to photograph the signs of the zodiac. But I didn’t want to stylize the girls in any way – Aquarius with a bucket of water, Libra with scales, Sagittarius with a bow and so on. I wanted only to show their eyes, in the same position, under the same conditions. For that I chose the so-called „grazing the little horses“ position with the head raised, even tilted back. Basically nothing suitable for a beautiful portrait. Everybody knows it is better and easier to make portraits slightly from one side or the other. The „en face“ portrait I chose, moreover in this uncomfortable position, can be unflattering and perhaps too revealing.

And precisely for that reason I chose this view – I keep photographing naked bodies, this time I photographed 12 naked faces. In such a position there is not much room to pretend or hide. For some it was even too much and perhaps perverse. One of the girls, for example, declined because she wants to be „pretty“ in photos, another for religious reasons.

I saw tears too – the harsh light pointed straight into the eyes, as at the dentist, sometimes took its toll. That too became in the end the reason for one of the models declining.

Look into the eyes, look for a long time

It wouldn’t be me if I didn’t tease you a little. That is why in the background, in the blur and out of focus, just behind the models‘ heads, I left something that you shouldn’t be distracted by at all.

Don’t think about which of the girls is the most beautiful, it’s not a beauty contest, all of them are beautiful, only some affect you more than others, and those in turn affect someone else. Look into the eyes and look there for a long time. It isn’t about their shape, it’s only about what you can read in them. I won’t lead you further in this direction; in my pictures I did everything within my power.

Thank you to all 12 models for the cooperation, and I wish you a pleasant viewing.

Famous people born under the sign …

Aries

Sarah Jessica Parker, Jackie Chan, Elton John, Mariah Carey, Eric Clapton, Celine Dion, Aretha Franklin, Charlie Chaplin, Alicia Silverstone, Billie Holiday, Elle MacPherson, Alessandra Ambrosio, Maria Sharapova, Steven Tyler, Diana Ross, Marlon Brando, Alec Baldwin, Eddie Murphy, Adolf Hitler

Taurus

Audrey Hepburn, Uma Thurman, Linda Evangelista, Laetitia Casta, Cher, Katherine Hepburn, Michelle Pfeiffer, Carmen Electra, Andie MacDowell, Jack Nicholson, Bono, Janet Jackson, Barbra Streisand, Renee Zellweger, Penelope Cruz, Pierce Brosnan, Al Pacino, Queen Elizabeth II, Saddam Hussein, V. I. Lenin

Gemini

Marilyn Monroe, Angelina Jolie, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Campbell, Anna Kournikova, Adriana Lima, Heidi Klum, Alanis Morissette, Paul McCartney, Brooke Shields, Johnny Depp, Bob Dylan, Lenny Kravitz, Kylie Minogue, Courtney Cox, Tom Jones, Boy George, John F. Kennedy, Prince William

Cancer

Liv Tyler, Princess Diana, Gina Lollobrigida, Gisele Bundchen, Cyndi Lauper, George Michael, Tom Hanks, Meryl Streep, Pamela Anderson, Sylvester Stallone, Tom Cruise, Ringo Starr, Brian May, Harrison Ford, Linda Ronstadt, Elka, Robin Williams, David Hasselhoff, Giorgio Armani, Nelson Mandela, George W. Bush

Leo

Madonna, Sandra Bullock, Mick Jagger, Robert Redford , Dustin Hoffman, Antonio Banderas, Whitney Houston, Stephanie Seymour, Robert De Niro, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Lisa Kudrow, Louis Armstrong, Gillian Anderson, David Duchovny, Carolyn Murphy, Melanie Griffith, Matthew Perry, Mata Hari, Bill Clinton

Virgo

Claudia Schiffer, Freddie Mercury, Salma Hayek, Sean Connery, Greta Garbo, Michael Jackson, Maculay Culkin, Cameron Diaz, Keanu Reeves, Michael Keaton, Charlie Sheen, Angie Everhart, Beyonce Knowles, Zemphira, Raquel Welch, Hugh Grant, Adam Sandler, David Copperfield, Sophia Loren, Bill Murray, Maurice Chevalier

Libra

Brigitte Bardot, Monica Bellucci, Catherine Deneuve, Catherine Zeta-Jones, Anthony Hopkins, Michael Douglas, John Lennon, Gwyneth Paltrow, Alicia Silverstone, Sting, Olivia Newton-John, Daniela Pestova, Luciano Pavarotti, Jean-Claude Van Damme, Sigourney Weaver, Will Smith, Margaret Thatcher, Silvio Berlusconi

Scorpio

Julia Roberts, Demi Moore, Sophie Marceau, Winona Ryder, Bo Derek, Leonardo DiCaprio, Whoopi Goldberg, Meg Ryan, Danny DeVito, Bryan Adams, Jodie Foster, Bjork, Goldie Hawn, Jenny McCarthy, Joni Mitchell, Vanessa Paradis, Pablo Picasso, Prince Charles, Indira Gandhi, Theodore Roosevelt, Charles De Gaulle

Sagittarius

Milla Jovovich, Kim Basinger, Christina Applegate, Brad Pitt, Frank Sinatra, Tina Turner, Jimi Hendrix, Ben Stiller, Woody Allen, Tyra Banks, Bridget Hall, Sinead O’Connor, Jane Fonda, Frank Zappa, Edith Piaf, Steve Buscemi, John Malkovich, Amy Grant, Samuel L. Jackson, Joseph Stalin

Capricorn

Kate Moss, Christy Turlington, Marlene Dietrich, Janis Joplin, Jim Carey, Sade, Annie Lennox, Diane Keaton, Nicholas Cage, Mel Gibson, David Bowie, Elvis Presley, Kevin Costner, Diane Keaton, Rod Stewart, Joan Baez, Denzel Washington, Kirstie Alley, Muhammad Ali, Gerard Depardieu, Dolly Parton

Aquarius

Nastassja Kinski, Lisa Marie Presley, Mia Farrow, Paris Hilton, Paul Newman, Phil Collins, Natalie Imbruglia, Alan Alda, John Travolta, Jennifer Aniston, Robbie Williams, Amber Valletta, Cybill Shepherd, Jack Lemmon, James Dean, Nick Nolte, Tom Selleck, Justin Timberlake, Boris Yeltsin, Nicolas Sarkozy

Pisces

Ornella Muti, Karolina Kurkova, Eva Herzigova, Natalia Vodianova, Sharon Stone, Elizabeth Taylor, Liza Minnelli, Bruce Willis, Cindy Crawford, Ursula Andress, Kurt Cobain, Ivana Trump, Drew Barrymore, George Harrison, Jon Bon Jovi, Chuck Norris, Kurt Russel, Julia Kogan, Steve Jobs, Albert Einstein, Mikhail Gorbachev