WITCH OF THE EAST

By PAP Magazine Editorial

A cropped black bob and a blush-pink scarf framing the face suggest the inversion of a fairytale. This editorial — realized through the collaboration of Michelle Watt, Dani Morales, Arpita Brahmbhatt, Ami Suzuki, and The Identity — focuses on an unguarded countenance: freckles, beauty marks, and the dewy sheen on the bridge of the nose under natural light reject the tyranny of perfection and propose a modern witch who exists on her own terms. Coral-tinted red lips and bold brows follow the grammar of classic beauty, yet the tangled and windswept hair paired with the vivid red texture of crocheted knitwear injects a raw, sensory energy. The subject is isolated against a pale grey backdrop, and in close-up the micro-topography of the skin and the sculptural volume of the lips are rendered with unsparing clarity. This is not an interpretation of Eastern mystique but a record of one person's unyielding gaze, existing wholly in the present tense.