If Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Julia Margaret Cameron, Maxfield Parrish and Mark Ryden had a baby (or spliced their genes together), it would be Chiara Fersini.
The 27 year old Italian visual artist who is also known by the name of her site, Himitsuhana, only recently became interested in photography after a 2007 trip to Japan. A self-proclaimed "lover of photoshop," Chiara transforms her photographs into surreal, ethereal portraits. The sensual and spiritual imagery is full of romance and mystery. In many instances, the photographs look like paintings and several are self-portraits. While her images are reminiscent of Pre-Raphaelite paintings and photography, they have an edge, contemporizing them.
Chiara says her work is more than just a passion for photography and digital manipulation, but reveals her inner emotions and dreams, making them very personal. I'm only glad, she's willing to share them with us. Fiercely copyright protected, I received written permission from Chiara to share the images in this post with you.
About the artist:
"My aim is to portray every single glance of the human soul and encourage people to dream and never stop believing in dreams."-- Chiara Fersini
Chiara Fersini (b. 1986) took a degree in Foreign Languages, English and Japanese. Since she was a child she was surrounded by art. Her mother, a painter and decorator, handed down to her the love for beauty and encouraged her inclination for visual arts. Her interest for photography is very recent; it started out after a study journey in Japan in 2007 and grew faster and faster coinciding with a falling in love with Photoshop. But photography is not just a passion for Chiara, it is the best way to show that intricate world that she feels inside. She put into her works her fears, dreams, her sorrow and joy and seeing them happening into images is a manner to feel free.
Himitsuhana Photography
The following links contain much of her work and on some, prints can be purchased:
Saatchi Online
Flickr
Red Bubble
Blue Canvas
Carbonmade
all images in this post are ©chiara fersini and may not be reproduced without her permission