Commissioned portrait of my friend Ema Uta, photographed in my studio for last year's Halloween.
For this setup, we rented an ornate throne chair for a day and built the atmosphere using practical light effects instead of CGI. The water reflections in the background were created manually using phone flashlights projected through bowls of water, combined with a decorative mirror panel placed on the floor and additional water reflections to simulate moving light across the scene.
The image was inspired by the visual aesthetic of Pour it Up by Rihanna and its iconic music video atmosphere, reinterpreted through my own studio setup and lighting approach.
Photo & retouching: Daniel Ilinca , 2025
Wow...wow!