GARDEN DREAMS & FLORAL FANTASIES: DANIELA MAJIC

DANIELA MAJIC

In the coldest dead of winter, when the likes of a “Bomb Cyclone” and polar vortex plunge us into the deepest freeze and darkest night, we dream of gardens, blushing with blossoms and sweet airs. We fantasize about carefree days, hearing birdsong, feeling soft flutter of butterfly wings, and the soft heat of summer romance.

Those of us with gardens plot to spring into action as soon as spring comes close enough to almost touch. We order seeds, we plan our flower beds, we daydream about the other gardens we’ll visit for inspiration. We dream about the most fantastical floral oases.

Photographer Daniela Majic creates fairytale garden scenes in her small attic for her magical series, “The Secret Garden.” Each scene is its own art installation, made of both real and silk flowers, by the hundreds, arranged against hand-painted backdrops.

Majic also makes the costumes that her models wear. She is supports by a small hair and makeup team.

Inspired by fashion, art and travel, Majic is known for her saturated colors and fantasy aesthetics. Her images are akin to magic tricks.

Majic conjures portraits of fairies, posed amidst fantastical garden settings, which are, in fact, art installations that she has created in her attic.

Using both silk and real flowers, paint, and grass, Majic is a master gardener, growing gardeners’ technicolor dreams.

Every month, she repurposes the entire set to create and shoot new concepts and characters.

Majic designs the costumes, herself and works with a hair and makeup team. Together, they create an otherworldly look and feel.

In another series, entitled Empyrean, Majic plays out her own interpretation of the word “empyrean,” a concept meaning “belonging to the highest place in heaven.” Of course, this has to be a garden! Her portrait subject is the goddess and creator of Empyrean, a character she calls “Elder.”

She used garden flowers to symbolize the characters maturing and blossoming, with vibrant colors softening as they age.

“I wanted to be able to transform the Elder,” Majic explains, “to have her mature and grow like a butterfly does, as well as how flowers bloom.” She used flowers to symbolize this "transformation."

As if Elder is being birthed from the flowers, she gives birth to Empyrean, and she emerges from the flower bed.

Everything in Majic’s images are 100% real and not digitally manipulated, although she does minor retouching and enhancement in post production.