Coming upon Ilva Hetmann’s ‘Tin Man’, lensed by Jonas Bresnan for the Fall 2011 issue of Tiger Magazine hours after reading that in the early Gnostic Christian scriptures Adam and Eve were originally androgynous, like Shiva and Shakti is one of many startling revelations I’ve had reading ‘The Women’s Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets’

She dwelt in him, and he in her; they were two souls united in one body, which God later tore apart, depriving them of their bliss of union. Cabalists (think Madonna) took up the idea and said the paradise of Eden can be regained only when the two sexes are once more united; even God must be uited with his female counterpart, the heavenly Eve called Shekina.

Makeup artist Mel Arter and hair stylist Ali Pirzadeh do a magnificent job of blurring Ilva’s gender identity and bringing to life these ancient words in ‘Tin Man’.