
Text by Savanna, Copyright 2024
.
On Swings
.
Photography by Tony Ward, Copyright 2024
Creative Director: KVaughn
Hair and Makeup: Octavia Monroe
Lighting Assistant: Anthony Colagreco
BTS: Al B For
Rope Work: Scorpiana
.
Last year, to my delight, I got to meet and get close to someone quite special. This someone turns out to be my inner child, and she is so rambunctious. Lively, mischievous — all she wants to do is have fun. And I think I am becoming one of her biggest fans.
I’ve been thinking a lot about swings (and her) lately. She brings with her memories of twisted-up steel chains, raveling and unraveling at inhuman speeds. Interlocking ankles with friends, swings swinging higher and higher, back and forth until the mishmash of ankles finally comes loose. (We called these ‘banana splits.’) Fast racing heartbeats as she and her friends dared each other to jump as far as they could. She would even place the seat against the middle of her back so she could wrap her little legs around the chains above and swing upside down.
This shoot for The Vixens Series was full of firsts. It was my first shoot in collaboration with Tony Ward, his studio, and his creative team. It was the studio and team’s first shoot incorporating Shibari and rope suspension elements. I love rope. Consensual rope bondage involves using rope as a means of restricting movement, wrapping, suspending, or restraining someone; it is a subsection of BDSM activities and has roots in Japanese rope bondage. When I think about it, I’m not surprised that this is what my adult self has fallen in love with. An inclination to be on the ground and to feel all the sensations internally and externally. It’s the “just feeling” part. Flavors of rope that I particularly enjoy: when my head is in my body, the mental endurance, challenging the reality of pain, the goofiness, the exploratory moments of seeing what my body can physically take and its range of motion, and the connectivity I can experience with others.
If I think about it a little more, I can see the little spirited inner child beside me, along for the ride. And she’s having so, so much fun.
Out of the different looks during our collaborative shoot, my favorite was our rope concept. I don’t have much experience with a fashion editorial-style shoot, and the team hadn’t done rope bondage in previous shoots. We were suddenly on the precipice of something new. We were all explorers! I loved that we were all experiencing something new together — through one another. To me, being seen as a vixen is a shared experience. It is to explore the unexplored with others, feel with them, react with them; it is something everyone contributes to.
.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: