UNDER COVER

Portrait of a woman with styled hair and makeup wearing a sheer lacy head covering against a black background.

Editorial Beauty

Obstruction, Compression and Controlled Presence

Creative Image Direction / Photography / Film

Published in Vingt-Sept magazine

INTRODUCTION

Under Cover is a structured material study.

The project explores how different surfaces, textile, tulle, plastic and organic elements alter facial perception through obstruction and compression.

The emotional axis is constant: intense and contained.

No softness.
No narrative gesture.
Only structure and restraint.

Veil - Structured Obstruction

Close-up of a woman with smoky eye makeup and black lipstick, wearing a black veil partially covering her face.

The veil acts as a filtering surface.

The material does not romanticize. It interrupts.

The face becomes plane and geometry.

Partial Restriction - Tulle

The lower face is restricted. Breath and speech are visually suspended.

The model maintains neutrality.
Intensity is internal.

A woman with short, dark hair styled with hair clips, wearing dark makeup with winged eyeliner, a bright pink garment, and a neon yellow-green veil covering her mouth and part of her face.

In profile, the material defines contour. The obstruction becomes structural.

Close-up of a woman's face, showcasing hair with bobby pins, eye makeup with graphic eyeliner, and a bright neon green and pink veil covering her lower face.

Transparent Rigidity

A woman with short dark hair wearing a translucent, layered hat with a futuristic aesthetic, with green lighting reflecting on her face.
Close-up of a woman's face with makeup, lips, and eyebrows visible, through glass with green light reflection.

A rigid transparent surface introduces architectural tension.

Light refracts and fractures across the skin.

Transparency becomes control.

Shadows are graphic and deliberate.
The face is reconstructed through geometry.

Compression

Close-up of a person's face with geometric eye makeup and a metallic head covering, showing part of the eyes and forehead.

Fabric wraps tightly around the head.

This is the point of maximum density.

Material presses.
Volume tightens.
Emotion remains withheld.

The image operates through pressure and restraint.

Containment

The final look withdraws into silence.

The face is painted white against a black void.
A butterfly rests on the surface.

The contrast between white and black amplifies containment.

Eyes closed. Stillness absolute.

The image does not romanticize fragility.
It suspends it.

Profile of a woman with short hair wearing an ornate lace headpiece, with a shadow of a butterfly on her face.

Film

The film connects the five looks into a continuous atmosphere.

Each material interaction becomes sensory.

The film does not explain the images.
It extends their tension.

Narrative Structure

The project moves through five controlled states:

Filter → Restriction → Refraction → Compression → Erasure → Different materials

Single emotional register.

Intent

This project proposes an alternative language for beauty imagery:

  • Structured rather than decorative

  • Textural rather than polished

  • Emotionally restrained

  • Cinematic and immersive

Material becomes architecture.
Light becomes control.
Emotion remains contained.