Rainbow Shaman, Sonya Shannon

Medium: Digital

Moving to the Southwest from New York, I discovered numerous Shamans: practitioners of ancient "medicine ways." Revealing metaphysical energies—the realm of the unseen—always struck me as the great potential of CGI and digital photo-manipulation. On the internet, I glimpsed the most indescribably beautiful human I'd ever seen: Freeda Be, a two-spirit healer, artist, and shaman. Just meeting Freeda unfolded the pathway to this artwork.

My studio is the great outdoors, my lighting the sky. On the day of our shoot, the "stage"—a grassy meadow—was heavenly gold, as though the gods spread a 24 karat gel over the sun, just for us. Freeda Be arrived mid-afternoon. We played with costumes and wigs, then headed into the afternoon light. The sky became a "blue screen" backdrop. Freeda dazzled in a bespoke costume from the Odissi dance tradition in Chennai, India.

We needed few words, as the angels danced in both of us: Freeda Be as the actor, and me, the photographer, capturing a rare divinity.

In Photoshop, I created stained-glass-like layers using macro shots of a massive crystal named "Darth" and hand-painted sun dog effects. The night I finished, the rainbow hues were so rich and dynamic, they boomed like ocean breakers over me.

For a behind-the-scenes look at how this piece was created, please visit "Making Visionary Art" at https://sonyashannon.substack.com/p/rainbow-shaman

Model: FreedaBe of QueerAsterisk