ASTROPHE x AMELIA ZADRO & THE ALCHEMY OF SISTERHOOD
Photoshoots with The Alchemy of Sisterhood are not your typical 'pose to create an image' and capture it.
A photoshoot becomes a ritual to explore beliefs we have about what is beautiful, what is deemed acceptable and to find a deeper truth in being in front of the camera. This project is a collaboration with an ethically handcrafted Lingerie Brand from Istanbul, Else.
Amelia Zadro and Jordan Cohayney contemplate what modelling has become if it is no longer to try to pretend to be something.
"We're not brainwashed anymore
But now we're open and raw
After the years of conditioning
We're still learning this new way of being
More receptive
More gentle
More alive
Paradoxically stronger through acknowledging softness
Empowered in sensitivity
There's no roadmap for this journey
But we're on the path now
And we're discovering a new type of beauty here."
A short interview about The Alchemy of Sisterhood.
What led you to start ‘The Alchemy of Sisterhood’?
Wanting to create spaces for people who are yearning for deeper connection with themselves and with others.
Could you describe for us your perceptions, understanding and experience of feminine energy?
Feminine energy is receptive, compared to masculine energy which is penetrative. Feminine energy is soft and it is also wild and raw, it is moving and changing, it is the Earth and the nature of life. It lives within all of us, male and female. Feminine energy has been largely repressed and the benefits of it have become elusive in modern-Western culture. Currently our society is dominated by masculine energy, which is about systems and structures, 'doing' and being clear, direct and focused on outcomes. Both feminine and masculine energy are useful but we are in a time where the need to re-learn about feminine energy is growing because the effects of the masculine dominated way of doing things is becoming obvious is the epidemics of burnout's, stress, anxiety that come from too much rigidity and control.
“The Alchemy of Sisterhood creates spaces for people who are craving deeper authentic connection within themselves and others”. How do you help others to realise and develop these connections?
Through techniques that bring us back to presence. When we are present, we feel connected. It can be hard to maintain a feeling of connection in day to day life because there is so much conditioning around what is right and wrong, socially acceptable and unacceptable or attractive and unattractive, successful and unsuccessful, all of these subconscious beliefs make us hide little parts of ourselves all the time. The Alchemy of Sisterhood events and sessions that I offer are spaces for people to re-discover who they are when all of this conditioning drops away. I use a mix of meditation, mindfulness, movement as well as techniques I have learned studying tantra, shamanism, psychology, physical health and nutrition, Ayurveda and yoga. It's a mixing pot of all the most powerful tools I have found and a matter of pulling out what's needed for the group in the moment- in the nature of the 'feminine'.
What methods do you practice to stay in touch with your inner or higher self?
Practices drawing from all of the study that I mentioned above, but it's as simple as taking time and space each day to tune in with myself and just listen to what's happening in my inner and outer worlds. I use a mix of still meditation, mindfulness and breathing practices, as well as embodied practices like moving meditation, dance, self-pleasure, working out, cooking- anything that brings me into the present moment and into deeper connection with life.
What everyday things can women do to support ourselves and other women?
Take time to tune in with yourself, to fill your own cup, process your emotions and listen to your desires before searching for others to love you and take care of you in the external world.
Learn to be your own lover and best friend and then you can show others how to love you without it coming from a feeling of scarcity.
Build a life that lights you up and you'll find you naturally want to support others who are doing the same rather than competing or judging.
Be honest, be courageously vulnerable.
Keep choosing love.
We rise together.
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