Luna Lovewitch is a goth girl from Romania. She came to Amsterdam to study psychology and has an unhealthy interest in the occult. She is very lonely but she gets involved  with a dominatrix and falls in love with her imaginary friend. Or is this a real ghost?

Luna Lovewitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or navité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Here she is summoning the devil and having contact with a deceased lover.

Luna Lovewitch is a goth girl from Romania. She came to Amsterdam to study psychology and has an unhealthy interest in the occult. She is very lonely but she gets involved  with a dominatrix and falls in love with her imaginary friend. Or is this a real ghost?

Luna Lovewitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or navité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

 

Here’s Luna entertaining herself at home.

Luna Lovewitch is a goth girl from Romania. She came to Amsterdam to study psychology and has an unhealthy interest in the occult. She is very lonely but she gets involved  with a dominatrix and falls in love with her imaginary friend. Or is this a real ghost?

Luna Lovewitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or navité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

 

As we are working with cliché’s (used as a medium itself): here she is posing at the graveyard.

linda Cantacalma is a freelance nurse: she worked in several hospitals but got fired every time she becomes too critical about the hospital system. Now she started a service of her own in which she is the only employee. She designed her own uniform for this.

Laura A Dima and I have a project we call ‘The Identity Machinery’ – this is an ongoing artwork about a person suffering from a ‘Multiple reality Disorder’. Laura plays all the characters for which we create fictional worlds and we take care of the styling and assigned art together.

Linda Cantacalma is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or naivité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Al the characters are personages Laura could have become had she made another choice at a certain moment in het life.

 

This is linda in her pink period.

Lena Draganovitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’, created by Laura A Dima and myself. Laura plays an Instagram entity that suffers from Multiple Reality Disorder (MDR). We play with cliché’s, and with the prejudices and expectations of our audience as we give all sublimated stereotypes a life story on their own: all of them are very lonely and have one specific problem that is related to respect and the lack thereof.

Lena is the ultimate ‘Fitmum’ who is lonely, seeks attention on Instagram by trying half heartily to be an influencer and has stuff. She neglects her baby and married for money.

Here she is in Amsterdam.

Lena Draganovitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’, created by Laura A Dima and myself. Laura plays an Instagram entity that suffers from Multiple Reality Disorder (MDR). We play with cliché’s, and with the prejudices and expectations of our audience as we give all sublimated stereotypes a life story on their own: all of them are very lonely and have one specific problem that is related to respect and the lack thereof.

Lena is the ultimate ‘Fitmum’ who is lonely, seeks attention on Instagram by trying half heartily to be an influencer and has stuff. She neglects her baby and married for money.

 

Here she is in Paris.

Lena Draganovitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’, created by Laura A Dima and myself. Laura plays an Instagram entity that suffers from Multiple Reality Disorder (MDR). We play with cliché’s, and with the prejudices and expectations of our audience as we give all sublimated stereotypes a life story on their own: all of them are very lonely and have one specific problem that is related to respect and the lack thereof.

Lena is the ultimate ‘Fitmum’ who is lonely, seeks attention on Instagram by trying half heartily to be an influencer and has stuff. She neglects her baby and married for money.

This photo of The Spinshots is made by Pearl Vink and me, with the stylistic help of Laura A Dima. Note that Babette and Flora are wearing Comic Sexy dresses.

Laila was the first character we had before we moved into ‘The Identity Machinery’. The idea was to make a work about the exotification of Roma people: in all fairytales and in romantic pop culture ‘Gypsies’ are great, traveling and spiritual people. Yet everywhere Roma are extremely discriminated and treated with prejudice. Things are never simple and as we got inspired by the infamous ‘Foxglove‘ story, we painted this ‘nightly fire’ as ‘gypsies’ are usually pictured as people who dance and party around the fire in the night. She dances on credit cards of her lovers but we thought it would be great if it looked clearly fake, a bit like a ’30s movie poster.

 

We have not worked on her character after we started going wild with the other characters. But here time will come!

 

Laura A Dima and I have a project we call ‘The Identity Machinery’ – this is an ongoing artwork about a person suffering from a ‘Multiple reality Disorder’. Laura plays all the characters for which we create fictional worlds and we take care of the styling and assigned art together.

Laila Esmaralda is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or naivité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Laura A Dima and I have a project we call ‘The Identity Machinery’ – this is an ongoing artwork about a person suffering from a ‘Multiple reality Disorder’. Laura plays all the characters for which we create fictional worlds and we take care of the styling and assigned art together.

Lola Luminova is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or naivité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

 

Here is a series referring to Lola’s discovery by ‘a dutch photographer visiting Romania’.

Loulou Pisica once was a naked furry, a girl who likes to dress in catsuits. But she developed into a dominatrix who sometimes turns out to be a slave. But she hates men, that is for sure.

Laura A Dima and I have a project we call ‘The Identity Machinery’ – this is an ongoing artwork about a person suffering from a ‘Multiple reality Disorder’. Laura plays all the characters for which we create fictional worlds and we take care of the styling and assigned art together.

Loulou Pisica is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or naivité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

 

Here’s loulou in her pink period.

linda Cantacalma is a freelance nurse: she worked in several hospitals but got fired every time she becomes too critical about the hospital system. Now she started a service of her own in which she is the only employee. She designed her own uniform for this.

Laura A Dima and I have a project we call ‘The Identity Machinery’ – this is an ongoing artwork about a person suffering from a ‘Multiple reality Disorder’. Laura plays all the characters for which we create fictional worlds and we take care of the styling and assigned art together.

Linda Cantacalma is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or naivité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Al the characters are personages Laura could have become had she made another choice at a certain moment in het life.

 

This is linda in her blue period.

Lana Claravera is a yoga teacher and a life coach. She operates mostly on Instagram where she gives instructions on how to find your Inner Goddess. She gives advises that lead to a True Spiritual Lifestyle by a system she developed, called The Body Knows (TBK).

She went through a lot of sad events in her life but dragged herself out with the help of yoga and fasting. It’s true she also got help from ‘beyond’ but she is willing to share what she knows.

Laura A Dima and I have a project we call ‘The Identity Machinery’ – this is an ongoing artwork about a person suffering from a ‘Multiple reality Disorder’. Laura plays all the characters for which we create fictional worlds and we take care of the styling and assigned art together.

Lana Claravera  is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or naivité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Lena Draganovitch is a mail-order bride from Romania. She married a rich guy and fills her time with (making photos in the) gym, influencing and shopping. Her best friend is a gay fashion designer and she also has a coach that she gets along with really well. She is, in short, the epiphany of the instagram influencer: always seen in hotels, pools, restaurants and other fancy places.

Lena Draganovitch  is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or navité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Luna Lovewitch is a goth girl from Romania. She came to Amsterdam to study psychology and has an unhealthy interest in the occult. She is very lonely but she gets involved  with a dominatrix and falls in love with her imaginary friend. Or is this a real ghost?

Luna Lovewitch is a character from ‘The Identity Machinery’ – a project that at this moment is mostly a soap on Instagram. It is a collaboration with my partner Laura A Dima, who plays the characters. I do the photography and together we doe the styling, making up the stories and everything.

The Identity Machinery started because of out interest in fetishism and psychology, or perhaps mostly in group behaviour. We noticed that fetishes and women’s attire often are derivates from a functional starting position. Nun’s or Nurse’s clothes indicated a function and a way of life – but type those terms in a search engine and you will see something else compared to how it used to look. Also, the derivates are quite different than the originals: if you look at it with an artistic eye, the ‘French Maid’ costume you’ll see now when you search is a sublime abstraction of the original: you’ll get only what you need to recognise it as such and it shows how conceptual the human mind is. Besides that the costumes are of course very sexualised and minimised and to us it seemed we missed a bit of a chance here. 

We have a preference of the very beginning of the sexualisation of uniforms and the like. In ’40’s, ’50’s and ’60’s films for instance, you will see pretty people in pretty uniforms, not objectified yet, usually having a real character but somehow very attractive.  We take this confusing and somewhat voyeuristic look at attire as a starting position to do statements about the objectification of the self on Instagram: there are lots of ‘influencers’ out there who are only skin deep – and yet they are nowadays pop stars. We wonder how out society could come so far that holding up a product on camera is a seen as an envious dream job. 

We see a lot of stupidity on social media: the ultimate democracy of free opinions led us to a world where we are empty shells who compete in beauty and wealth, and can say anything without feeling consequences. Yet we share in tribes of the likeminded and think we are ‘right’ by having ‘followers’, and throll others.

We try to make the ultimate Instagram cliché’s, sublime objectifications of ‘types’ of women, and then give them a story of their own. As a result we reverse the mass-social tendency to objectify women.

But, in our work, humor always plays a role. We love to vent out the stupidity or navité of certain characters. We enjoy the stupid reactions, mostly of men ready to give up everything for an image and people who think they can talk on behalf of ‘all women’ when they publicly try to point out flaws in our morals.

Flavia Courette (of the Courettes) in her Comic Sexy dress

Zamira is on of the dancers of ‘The Barbarellas’. Her she poses in an ‘Exotica’ dress i designed for Comic sexy.

Sumchog used to be a student at the art school where i taught. She was so kind to offer poses for a photoshoot in Amsterdam – we just walked the street and took photos where we liked it.

Pearl is a friend who also did the PR and promotional stuff for the Spinshots for a while. We paid her in Comic Sexy dresses and i was lucky: she is a model and was kind enough to pose for me in all dresses. 

Pearl is a friend who also did the PR and promotional stuff for the Spinshots for a while. We paid her in Comic Sexy dresses and i was lucky: she is a model and was kind enough to pose for me in all dresses. 

Pearl is a friend who also did the PR and promotional stuff for the Spinshots for a while. We paid her in Comic Sexy dresses and i was lucky: she is a model and was kind enough to pose for me in all dresses.

Pearl is a friend who also did the PR and promotional stuff for the Spinshots for a while. We paid her in Comic Sexy dresses and i was lucky: she is a professional model and was kind enough to pose for me in all dresses.

Ostara showing her tailored to fit ‘Exotica’ dress. I designed it for Comic Sexy and Laura A Dima did the make up for this shoot. The artwork is at Art Zuid, Amsterdam

Margreet de Heer, comic artist and at the time ‘Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands’ in her ‘Dolores’ i designed for Comic Sexy. Actually, she has two: one with purple lines and one with white lines.

Margreet de Heer, comic artist and at the time ‘Comic Artist Laureate of the Netherlands’ in her ‘Exotica’ i designed for Comic Sexy.

Loes was one of the  baritone saxophonists in The Spinshots. When she joined the project, we gave her a Comic Sexy dress and i shot some pictures to promote my clothing brand.

Laura posing in her Lava Caliente dress i designed for Comic Sexy. We were in Paris and did 4 full days of shooting for The Identity Machinery, Comic Sexy and did the great museums!

Laura A Dima in the ‘Encantada’ i designed for Comic Sexy

Laura posing in her ‘Future Mistress’ dress, i designed for Comic Sexy. This dress was made for her, tailored to fit. At the time i developed Comic Sexy we had an online measuring guide to have tailored-to-fit dresses delivered at home.

we had a ‘Dorita’ tailored for Laura’s birthday – and it looked fantastic! So i made pictures of her in the dress in Amsterdam, to show how great a tailored-to-fit Comic Sexy dress looked.

Yui is a dancer who was kind enough to pose for me in a Dolores when I first had a prototype. The first Dolores of course went to Flora Dolores, the name giver of the dress and singer of the Spinshots, but after that i needed models in very different sizes to show ‘made to fit’ worked. What became ‘happy client photography’ later, started as just asking nice people to pose in the streets of Amsterdam.

My friend Laetitia (who also posed for other work you’ll see around here) in the ‘Lava Calienta’ we made for her birthday.

Laura posing in the ‘Exotica’ dress i designed for Comic Sexy while we were in Paris.

Flora Dolores was the singer of the Spinshots, a project i started to perform my musical compositions. Flora is, besides a great singer, a good friend and a perfect model for the dresses. She wore several of them on and off stage and i made some nice pictures of her as a Comic Sexy Ambassadorette.

Of course, Comic Sexy started with me designing her first stage dress when i was visiting my friend and CS collaborateur André oosterman in Indonesia. I designed the very first Comic Sexy dress, called ‘Dolores’ with my feet in the water of a swimming pool, and a sketch book on my lap.

Esmée is one of the dancers of ‘The Barbarellas’. She dances on 60s events organised by Amsterdam Beat Club – a great opportunity for me to shoot vids and photos of nice girls wearing my dresses. But Esmée was kind enough to also pose for a street fashion shoot and gave Comic Sexy some iconic pictures!

Esmée and Zamira are two dancers from a troupe called ‘the Barbarellas’. They dance at the ’60s oriented events organised by Amsterdam Beat Club and they were fantastic models – on and off stage. Look around a bit as there are more pictures of them and vids as well!

Laura in her ‘Comic sexy’ dress ‘Encantada’ in Paris.
When I was developing Comic Sexy i made photos of happy clients showing the Tailored-to-Fit’ dresses i designed as well as lucky friends. Laura is my partner so she helped me out on every basically every occasion. Comic Sexy dresses are perfect for her – she looks good in them and she is a great model – so we had this win-win situations on city trips.

Laura in a ‘Lava Caliente I designed for Comic Sexy, in Gent.

Lola’s first official shoot. Did it get out of hand?

During one of the ‘Goth’ shoots. We did not think this was very ‘Goth’ perhaps but I really like this photo. Laura’s make up looks so beautiful on her!

This photo does not really promote the dress i designed, but i really love it and Sumchog looks beautiful here!

Laura, Zamira and i worked together on a shoot for Comic Sexy. And here we just had a break. Could not stop making pictures and made the best pic of the day with Zamira choosing a drink and a bite from the menu.

This was a mistake with the lighting and the focussing when we were shooting for The Identity Machinery. I can’t use this picture for anything but i really like the colour combinations and the unsharp girl in the front. it has a certain ‘lynchian’ quality that i probably could not get had i aimed for it.

Laura posed for my painting ‘Silence’ – and in between the ‘official’ shots i made this picture. She is waiting for instructions and the idea was to capture the moment she opens her eyes, for that spontaneous ‘shine’ in the eyes. Just clicked early.

Laura during one of our many photo sessions. Can’t use this picture for anything but i really love the accidental movement here. How did i even do this? She was not moving, that’s for sure!

One of those unexpected beauties. Laura is just going to the mirror to adjust her make up during the shoot for ‘Eleven’ in the series ‘Everything Must Go’, and i happen to see the moment and click.

Laetitia posed for me when i drew the ‘space girl’ in the series ‘Everything Must Go’. Sha had a fish bowl in front of her face to get an understanding of the breaking of light and the reflection in spherical glass. The globe-light in the background finishes the photo.

This is a picture of Laura who did the make up for Loes during a shoot for Comic Sexy. She waits in Loes’ car, we’re about to go to the next location. I thought this picture was great because it looks so glamorous, while Loes her car is an old cheap thing and we are at one of the least glamorous locations in Amsterdam.

This is Fred Krijger, silk printer. He is working on the cover for Amsterdam Klezmer Band’s ‘Fortuna’ on vinyl and i shot this pic in between filming the proces.

This is a picture of my friend Fraser: i really love this one: he is at the opening of his own art show in Amsterdam. You can see how hard he works and that he made his deadlines ‘just in time’, and the combination of relief, recognition and exhaustion makes this a really good picture, i think.

Sometimes you make the best work without the intention to do so. I made lots of ‘inbetweenies’ – snapshots in which a model is preparing or the subject is inbetween two actions that are not useful for anything but provide great images. Here is Laura acting as Luna Lovewitch for a shoot for The Identity Machinery. I just love this picture.

Sometimes people at work are just in too beuatiful a situation. A model in a car, a silk printer checking his screens, an artist deadly tired after designing his art show and now at the end of his opening event…