bridal session: from swan bird to swan princess

From Igor Kovchegin Photography – “The concept of this bridal session is the idea of the duality of the world, in particular, the women of the world and the transition from one state to another (the bride & wife) with the example of the conversion from Swan Bird to Swan Princess.”

Looking to illustrations of Russian folklore icon Ivan Bilibin we realized that the best place for our editorial would be the Crimean seaside. We had two locations: the rock and the coast embodying the heavens and the earth. The sea became a kind of portal for the conversion, which acted as part of the background when shooting and on the rocks, and on the coast, thereby forming uniformity and linking frames.

From Igor Kovchegin Photography – “Our from Princess to Swan inspiration shoot was inspired by four works of art:

The Tale of Tsar Saltan (poem) by Alexander Pushkin
The Tale of Tsar Saltan (Opera) by Mikolay Rimsky-Korsakov
Train Spattered with Stars (poem) by Alexander Blok
The Swan Princess (painting) by Mikhail Vrubel

The sea in Rimsky-Korsakov’s opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan is a powerful force, miraculous and benevolent to the human element, the cradle of humanity. It takes desire and creates miracles gives miraculous escape, a wonderful kingdom, a wonderful Swan Princess.”

From Igor Kovchegin Photography – “In the Crimea there is a remarkable monument – Miskhorian Mermaid, which looks out from the sea depths on to the same beach. This is an unusual bronze sculpture of a woman holding a child. The legend at the monument is similar to the plot of The Tale of Tsar Saltan so we decided to include the women’s visual image in the series.

We included a magnolia in the bouquet as it embodies the spring, feminine beauty, and charm.”

“We had two gorgeous wedding dresses flown to us from designer Zhanna Salatova, both of which were custom designed for our shoot. Tatiana Ashakova of Beretk!Ah , also created a unique headpiece for the Princess look Evgenia Lebedeva did for the image of the Swan.

Talented florist Lena Romanova came with us to the Crimea and she hand-carried the bridal bouquet onto the plane! Bark and Berry provided the gentle and flowing silk ribbons, hand-painted with natural dyes, and our good friend and calligrapher Alina Ilina, who is never afraid of experimentation, wrote on one of the silk ribbons words from a fairy tale.

Hair and makeup for the Swan Princess was from our local Crimean beauticians Vita Petrenko & Kristina Karpova. For the initial image of the Bird we left our model as natural as possible.”

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Photography & Planning: Igor Kovchegin Photography // Concept & Styling: Anna Romanova // Flowers: Green May // Princess Hair: Vita Petrenko // Princess Makeup: Kristina Karpova // Dresses & Veil: Zhanna Salatova // Swan Hair Accessory: Evgeniya Lebedeva // Princess Hair Accessory: Beretk!Ah // Silk Ribbons and Textiles: Bark and Berry // Calligraphy: Alina Iliyana // Coordination: Santi Wedding // Model: Alexandra Panchenko // Location: Crimean seaside.