Emily von Hoffmann: Can you please describe the concept of your “Monarchs” project for our readers? How did the idea for this project arise?

Chloe Massey: The idea for my project came up after a conversation with my mum, mother to three girls and I know I speak for all of us when I say our biggest role model. It was early September and I was about to go back to university to start a project that could last up to a year. I’ve learned how rare and valuable such a long period of time is to work solely on personal projects and I wanted to use it to make something I could be proud of and that said something.

I spend a fair amount of time day dreaming and I remember conjuring up an image of a strong majestic woman on a horse dressed in fine prints and gold (an image I still need to make) and all these other regal characters and ideas started evolving. After some initial research into female Monarchs from the past (I try not to use the word ‘Queen’ as it has a long history denoting a woman who reigns next to a King, and the women I was seeking were very independent of their husbands) and I was so surprised that I had never heard their inspiring stories before. These were women who sowed the seeds of gender equality, and besides all odds were advocators of positive change in often very conservative, sexist times. Unfortunately many of the problems that they had to fight against still exist for women today, their stories timeless and enduring. I thought that their triumphs and messages would be a morale booster for contemporary society.

After realizing this I knew that my project would be a series of representations of female Monarchs from the past and as the project has developed, I thought that including portraits of current female advocators would help show the universal, timeless strength of women.

I had heard from friends who have travelled to South Africa how incredible and honest the people were and how hard they fight to improve the rights of women, and for me photography is all about learning from and working with people. It just kind of made sense to come and experience this for myself.

EvH: The first portrait you completed is of a woman named Theodora — can you share her story and tell us why she was a fitting start to the project? Who is the male character present in some of her portraits?

CM: Theodora lived in a 500 AD Byzantine Empire, Constantinople. Stories of her early life are hidden under layers of obloquy but we know she came from a poor family and was a child prostitute and entertainer, and had a child at 14. At 18 she left an established career of acting and entertainment and experienced a religious conversion to a branch of early Christianity.

Soon after she met Justinian, who became Emperor. Their marriage was extremely unlikely and he had laws changed which allowed women from her background to marry. Their relationship is always described as sincere and she appears to have been a very active feminist of her time. Theodora worked for women’s marriage and dowry rights, anti-rape legislation, and helped young girls who were sold into sexual slavery. She forbid exposure of unwanted infants, gave mothers some guardianship rights over their children, and forbid the killing of a wife who committed adultery. She also closed brothels and created convents where ex-prostitutes could support themselves.

In my images from the series there are references to her religion, the sanctity of life, the soul and to children shown in the eggs and the pomegranate fruit, in the use of the veil. The snake is used, as in Christianity, to reference the evil serpent, as she was often described to be cunning and ruthless. However, in Chinese mythology the snake is a symbol of rebirth and renewal of life and to me this represents the real Theodora.The male model represents Justinian, and I hoped to portray the sincerity and intimacy of their relationship; they were young when they met and had to rule at a difficult time yet he seemed to shares such responsibilities and trust her entirely.

I actually used my sister Josie to represent Theodora because we work so well together and she is an incredible model and I found Jite, who plays Justinian, in a queue for the toilets outside a club in Bristol and straight away he said he’d get involved. Throughout the selection of prints I wanted to show the different aspects of her life conceptually, the impenetrable persona she would have had to have worn as ruler, the darker days of her youth, her love for her husband, a softness I’m sure existed. The triple exposure, for example, represents these different characteristics. The image of her dancing is a moment of escape from her duties as Empress, bringing us back to where she came from and the tiled floors, a connotation of the church, which both helped and depraved her.

EvH: Is that example — of finding Justinian in a club in Bristol — representative of how you find your models?

CM: That’s actually how I find most of my models, through street casting. Bumping into people and having a good feeling about them, I like to try new things like dance classes and I find thats a good way of coming across unique people. I actually went on a date with a guy about a year ago and even though we got along well we didn’t see each other again. Recently I had an idea for an image and I new he’d be perfect for it, so I called him up and got him in the studio with girls hands drawing over his tattoos with quills. We had a good laugh! Some of the people I have asked to model for me are now some of my closest friends, another thing I love about what I do.

EvH: You wrote that the project will “represent powerful women whose voices I feel deserve a greater platform than most historical account provide.” Can you share with us one or two other characters you’re planning to recreate?

CM: Yeah! One would be Emperor Wu Zetian, China’s only female Emperor, who fought her way to the throne and is demonized throughout history for “being like a hen crowing,” her agency and ideas very much opposed to the stifling Confucian laws of the time. She improved rights for women, changed the legal system to a more democratic structure where scholars were hired based on their achievements and not their aristocratic merit. She also had the first female Buddha made and placed in front of traditionally male Buddhas, said to be made in her likeness. Of course this is attributed as a lavish act of patronage but I think she was making a point.

EvH: Theodora has a carefully curated look — what are your visual inspirations for these portraits? Do you sketch and iterate these styles, or else what is your creative process like when planning a portrait?

CM: I mostly look at painting and fashion, whatever is around me and the conversations I have to use as inspiration. I love how the mosaics of Theodora in Constantinople were printed on Dolce & Gabanna designs for one of their collections. The symbolic portraits of Piero Di Cosmo, August Riedel and in particular the evocative women in Botticelli’s paintings were a big inspiration. I looked for the way the women were represented, how goddesses were often naked, transcendent, beautiful beings and women were often temptresses, the work of female heroes by women artists, for example that of Artesmisia Gentileschi, often responded to with prejudice and labels that suggest the subjects to be unfeminine, gory and animalistic.

I plan and make mood boards for general ideas and colour palettes, for hair and makeup, for themes and symbols yet I never know exactly what is going to look like until I start photographing. I love to style and construct and as a result my work is a hybrid between fashion and portraiture. When it comes to finally making the picture, I work slowly and spontaneously, in a hands-on way. Thats the beauty of working on medium format camera attached to on a tripod — I can physically interact with my subject and direct them, before making sure everything is perfect before taking the shot. I do hardly any work in post, just a bit for printing digitally.

EvH: Tell us about your decision to use film in the project. Why is that important for your aesthetic?

CM: I love the way that film makes me work, I like to make things elegant and still but hopefully poignant. The colours and tonality of portra also helps. I think therefore to get the best out of me, like I will be asking of my models, it would be silly not to work in this way.

Interview by Emily von Hoffmann and Polarr — Pro Photo Editor Made for Everyone. Follow Polarr on Twitter and try our products.

Chloe Massey is a Bristol-based photographer. You can support her project here.