CHARLOTTE CHESNAIS

Concept • Creative Direction • AI Image Direction
(Self-initiated concept)

An imaginary campaign for Charlotte Chesnais. Six pieces, each shot twice: once on a body and once as part of a still life.

(all images & videos are AI generated by me)

Black and white portrait of a young woman with wet hair, looking at the camera over her shoulder, wearing a large earring and a strapless top.

A tall glass of water on a patterned tablecloth, with a pair of pearl earrings hanging on the glass rim. Sunlight casts shadows and reflections on the surface.

A collage of black and white and color photographs featuring jewelry, glassware, and a woman with dark hair. The jewelry includes earrings, rings, necklaces, and a pearl bracelet. The glassware consists of wine glasses, a goblet, and a drinking glass. There are also images of a hand touching a ring, a cherry with a ring, and a leaf with jewelry. One woman is shown from the shoulders up, looking to the side, and another with her back turned, showcasing a back necklace.

Still Life with Jewellery

Two Lives

Charlotte Chesnais came to jewellery from fashion. She has said she "could have been making chairs or other objects.”

Her pieces are made to be worn and to stand on their own. So each one gets two frames. On the body it's jewellery. On the table it's an object, and it has to work without anyone wearing it.

The Still Life

Dutch still life painters of the seventeenth century put pearls and silver beside fruit, flowers, eggs and glass. Everything on the table was going to spoil or break except the metal.

This campaign uses the same arrangement. Gold and pearl rest on an egg, a cherry, a petal, a feather. The jewellery is the only thing in each frame that will look the same next year.

The Body

In the portraits, the body sits on the same side as the fruit. Unretouched skin, with pores, fine hair and freckles. The model doesn't perform for the camera. She looks away, looks down, or turns her back.

A woman with dark, wavy hair, topless, gazing to her right, holding her shoulders with her hands, wearing a necklace with a gold and silver toggle clasp and a small diamond charm, against a black background.

Black and white portrait of a young woman with dark hair slicked back, wearing a large pearl earring, and a strapless top, photographed with a neutral background.

A clear glass with pearl earrings hanging over its rim, filled with water, placed on a table with a patterned tablecloth. Light and shadow create a dappled effect on the surface.

Close-up of a woman with dark, slicked-back hair wearing a large pearl earring, touching her earlobe with her hand.

A small decorative feather with brown and white stripes, adorned with a spiral gold wire ring.

Close-up of a person's hand wearing a ring, resting on a dark fabric background.

Comparison of a black-and-white photo of glassware on the left and a colored portrait of a woman with dark hair and a silver necklace on the right.

A split image showing a black and white portrait of a woman with her eyes closed on the left, and a still life of a white flower with a pearl necklace and bracelet on the right.

Black and white close-up photograph of a hand with fingers crossed, wearing a ring on the ring finger. The image is divided into two parts, with the other part showing a photograph of a cherry with a ring around its stem, taken on a film strip backgr

Close-up of a woman's ear wearing a gold hoop earring with a large pearl pendant.

ON THE MAKING

I generated and directed every image and video myself. No photographer, no crew, no set.

The jewellery exists and the campaign doesn't, so the pieces couldn't change. Every loop, knot and clasp had to match the original design. Everything around them was free to be invented: the egg, the cherry, the light, the woman wearing them.