In pictures: The haunting beauty of Halloween archetypes

Gothic art, folklore, fantasy and the supernatural come together in a new Halloween shoot from photographer Charlotte Ellis. Celebrating both the beauty and the unsettling darkness of the ancient tradition, the images play with Halloween archetypes like devils, witches, ghosts and crows with a subtlety that keeps it from being too stereotypical or trite. “We wanted to create our own narrative in the hope that the essence of Halloween would still be there but the overall outcome would feel both fresh and subtle,” says Ellis. “Our goal was to create looks where elegant features could harmoniously sit in the same space as our darker inspirations.”

Alongside the rest of the creative team – stylist Celia Arias, make-up artist Porsche Poon, hairstylist Yumiko and nail artist Liia Zotova, Ellis pulled references and inspiration from art, fashion, horror films and myths to create a weird and wonderful cast of characters: The Silver Witch, The Crow, Screws and Nails, The Red Devil, The Deformed, an Alien, Dark Tears, and The Ghost. The deformed character was inspired by the brush strokes and smudged colours of a painting, while the ghost took reference from the works of Korean artist Moon Chanpil and Piotr Jabłoński, a Polish artist who creates “beautifully dark paintings”.

“I was particularly drawn to weaving diverse references together, for example the way a gothic painter used their brush strokes and how that merge of colours could be translated onto a model in our studio,” says Ellis. “Or how the movement of a character in a horror film could be represented in our film.”

To bring the characters to life, the beauty team played with colours and textures to represent and enhance the essence of each. To create the crow character, feathers sourced from a handmade wig were used to create texture, while Zotova also crafted nails from feathers. To create the tears of the crying characters, Chiao used a mixture of Vaseline and gel infused with silver to catch and reflect light, producing a haunting glow. Meanwhile, the Red Devil plays with optical illusions which were created by covering the models’ ears and half of her head with black paint, before shooting against a black backdrop to give the impression that only half the head is present. 

Ultimately, the shoot celebrates not only the aesthetics of Halloween, says Ellis, but also “invites a deeper exploration of how beauty can be multifaceted, allowing the characters to express themselves in ways that are both beautiful and haunting.”

Photography @cellisphoto, hair @hikageyumiko at @clmagency, make-up @porschepoon, nails @the.fingersofgod at @future_rep, styling @celia__arias, set design @georgiacurrell_set, lighting @lewis___robinson and @lucyvealephoto, digital operator @senorperkins, DOP @katyaganfeld, 1st AC @alexandradellanno, make-up assistants @joebrookks, @natsutomonaga and @zaffered, hair assistant @x_sjourdan, styling assistants @ameiajoestar and @LeonorCarvalho, retouching @studio__rm, production @imagepartnership, models @nassia_ at @suprememgmtlondon, @didi.kovalchuk at @imgmodels, @wrenaissance123 at @antiagencyldn, @domin_chong at @antiagencyldn, @fkfatou0 at @premiermodels