'Mother of Pearl' by Elizaveta Porodina for W Magazine China January 2025 Art Issue AOC Fashion

Photographer Elizaveta Porodina [IG] is having a great kickoff in 2025 and AOC will share all her new work in the coming days. We begin with Porodina’s ‘Mother of Pearl’ fashion story, created for W Magazine China’s [IG] art issue 2025.

Models Huijia Chen and Peng Chang take the spotlight in one of the most symbolism-rich stories in Porodina’s creative riches portfolio, with art direction by Zipeng Li./ Makeup by Karen Westerlund; hair by Yuwei Weng

The image-maker references important symbols emanating from her photography — like the one above— writing :

The first image of this series tells a story of powerful transformation that starts from within to finally bloom and flourish on the outside. I love how calmly and precisely this emotion is interpreted by Peng Chang [IG].

Speaking to this next image above, Porodina links actual facts of the earth’s evolutionary history to the cultural symbolism of these elements in Chinese history. Black lacquer and mother of Pearl unite to create an important Chinese art form that is familiar to most of us. Porodina writes:

The black lacquer comes from the deep mountains. The mother of Pearl comes from the sea. After thousands [of years] time of polishing, they are inlaid on the lacquerware, it looks like the Milky Way against the black lacquer.

Only Elizaveta Porodina would now introduce cosmology in communicating the meaning and background of techniques and symbols that she is using in these W Magazine China images at the same moment I was listening to physics professor Brian Cox share details of his traveling show ‘Horizons’. Eureka!

For years I’ve taken great liberties with Elizaveta’s images in my AOC writing, and she is fine with it. We are in harmony with each other from our shared interests in Jungian psychology to intentions that cement positive global relationships that counteract threats of divisiveness driven by nationalism and often religion.

Elizaveta’s creative platform now exists without boundaries of time and place; and I will no longer worry about whether or not Porodina can keep her artistic blitz going with forward momentum. I’m throwing that concern out of my worry bucket as of today. ~ Anne