With this shoot, I am planning to do a photoshoot to recreate a historical painting. I will be working off a work by John William Waterhouse, and representing a key story from Greek mythology.

This is a painting depicting a scene from a Greek myth; the story of Echo and Narcissus. Echo was a nymph who was cursed to only be able to repeat the last words spoken to her and never speak on her own, so she wandered the woods alone. Narcissus was a handsome young man who got separated from his friends in the woods one day and came across Echo, who immediately fell in love with him but couldn’t say so, because of her curse. Then came a confusing moment where Echo repeated exactly what Narcissus said to her again and again, and eventually he grew annoyed and said he could never love her. She became so upset that she ran into a nearby cave and collapsed, starving herself until she withered away and only her voice was left, repeating the last things said to her. Narcissus was later cursed by the goddess of revenge for refusing Echo’s love and he fell madly in love with his own reflection in a nearby pond, refusing to leave it for even a second. Eventually he also starved to death by the same pond.

what- recreate this image with a modern twist, so the roles are gender-swapped and the setting is modern as well.

who- two friends wiling to pose, gender swapped, so that Narcissus will be played by a girl and Echo by a boy, because I think it will be interesting to see how the overall tone of the scene changes when the gender roles are reversed

where-in an outside environment, maybe a garden of a field

how- will explain the story of Echo and Narcissus to the two “models” so that they understand the roles they will be portraying, then set them up in the pose and start shooting. I might get them to move around naturally in those characters and capture some images in a similar style but with slightly different positions. I will dress them in the same colour schemes but most likely not exactly the same style of clothing, and I will have Narcissus look into a phone instead of a pond’s reflection, to make the image more modern.

other notes- there will be no actual nudity involved