Arts Design

SECRET, MAGICAL, MAGNIFICENT GARDEN DREAMS NOW

by Daniela Majic. Wisteria Princess. The Secret Garden Series.

DANIELA MAJIC

Some gardens can be positively magical.

Daniela Majic’s photographs of gardens, full of fragrant flowers, fluttering butterflies, and beautiful fairies, are really akin to magic tricks.

In her newest collection, Secret Garden, she 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.

Butterflies appear throughout the Elder series. In the last image, entitled "Elder & the Book," set at end of summer, Majic reflects on the fragile life of a butterfly, with another character she created, called “Monarch.”

“I feel like the butterfly is a symbol of life and how quickly it changes and passes,” Majic explains.

Majic’s work has been featured in many major publications, such as Vogue, Vogue Italia, Chloe Magazine, Marie Claire, and Institute magazine.

You can see more of Daniela Majic’s extraordinary garden photography on her website.

If you like these beautiful garden portraits, check out photographer Kirsty Mitchell’s work, featured in a previous BN Daily Fix post, Dreams as Soul Creations Now.

Want more stories like this? Sign up for our weekly BN Newsletter, Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, Tumblr. Join our BeautifulNow Community and connect with the most beautiful things happening in the world right now!

Do you have amazing photos? Enter them in this week’s BN Photo Competition.