Leda and the Swan.

“A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her helpless breast upon his breast.

How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?

A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?.”

- William Butler Yeats

Leda and the Swan.

Leda and the Swan is a famous story from Greek mythology in which the mighty god Zeus seduced, and raped, Leda in the form of a swan. She gave birth to two white eggs, from which two twin brothers were born.

As fine art duo Wetzer & Waalwijk Hanneke started working together with Esther van Waalwijk. The photography project Leda and the Swan was born; a free translation from the equally named Greek myth.

In this project pictures taken from an antique camera face a photographic translation with the Instagram app of a modern iPhone in combination with a performance in the city.

The chosen setting brings contrasts; the silence of the portrait studio against the vociferous surroundings of the city centers of Eindhoven and Venlo.

Leda and her love for the swan stay perfectly calm in both situations.