In her world, softness isn’t a weakness. It’s a strategy. A spell. A shield.
We first encountered Bluechapellamb through her photographs; portraits soaked in flash and tenderness, quiet rebellion dressed in white lace. What stayed with us wasn’t just the visual language but the emotional precision. You could tell these weren’t just photos. They were decisions. Every frame, a question about visibility, about tenderness, about the role performance plays in how women are seen and how women choose to be seen.
She once said, “If you want to know my work, watch how I withhold.” That line felt like a thesis. Her practice exists at the intersection of theatricality and refusal. There’s always something hidden. Sometimes it’s her face. Sometimes it’s the intention. But there is always a presence; watchful, intelligent, and full of care.
In our interview, Bluechapellamb spoke openly about her philosophies around identity, masking, softness, and storytelling. She believes in the quiet power of suggestion. She sees performance not as artifice but as protection. She is especially interested in how women perform emotion in domestic spaces, how femininity is flattened or romanticized in public narratives, and how the camera can be both a weapon and a balm.
She told us that vulnerability is most powerful when it's chosen, not extracted. That sometimes the most radical thing a woman can do is stage her own myth and decide who gets access to it.
The images featured in Orange Cube Issue 0 were taken over several months. They are quiet and uncanny, tender and strange. In them, she appears veiled, masked, blindfolded. Holding flowers. Holding a plastic bear. Holding nothing. Each image seems to question what it means to be held ; by the lens, by an audience, by the self.
For Bluechapellamb, props are never just aesthetic. The teddy bear honey jar is a metaphor for sweetness that’s been commodified. The clown mask plays with our obsession with performative femininity. The plastic flowers reflect a beauty that doesn’t wilt but also never truly lives. There is critique in every corner, but it’s never loud. It’s coded, stylized, and offered with a poetic precision that makes you lean in.
She also spoke about the importance of visual control. Post-production, she says, is an extension of the performance. To edit a photo is to curate what part of yourself you want the world to engage with. It’s not about deception, it’s about authorship.
Bluechapellamb doesn’t believe in overexplaining her images. What matters more is how they make you feel. Not everything has to be named to be understood.
What emerges from her work is a deep and complex philosophy about artistic sovereignty. She is both the subject and the director. Both the performance and the critique of it. Her photos don’t beg to be liked. They ask to be considered.
In a culture obsessed with hyper-visibility, she reminds us that opacity is sacred. That mystery, too, is a form of self-respect.
You can view her full photo series and read the complete interview in Orange Cube Issue 0; available in print and online at www.orangecube.org
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