These photos were taken in Como while visiting our dear friend July on Nastya´s birthday. A flash trip to Italy to meet Margherita, July´s 1-month old daughter and the symbolic new beginning of starting fresh a new number, were the perfect backdrop for this shoot. Away from daily PhD worries and with guaranteed warm weather we had the ideal setting for this Russian who will always be happier in dresses than in jeans. Traditional to the bone, if looked at rightly, Nastya is easy to understand even when her world views might differ from yours. This is due to the coherence in how she thinks, feels and acts, a powerful trilogy I admire since it’s rare to find all three aligned in others and certainly something very hard to achieve in ourselves. Being confident and sharp when speaking her mind, she appear taller and stronger than she looks, veiling for short moments the delicate and feminine woman you usually see. But far from being too serious, Nastya is easy to laugh, extremely witty and very quick with jokes and since I value sense of humour over almost everything else, this is enough for me to have her at the top of my list. Sadly, not too many people are lucky enough to get to really know her, because Nastya is also a long-life and very committed introvert. I am a big fan of introverts and this beautiful Muscovite is one of my favourites around. Introverts, like icebergs, only show a tip of their internal world, which in my view makes them the most interesting people of the lot. I am fascinated in finding out what they keep for themselves and only share with the small circle of humans they handpick with tweezers and a magnifying glass. Like most if not all introverts, Nastya reveals herself in tiny doses over time, luckily, I had a comfortable window of 4 years to spend with her and I reckon I see about 80% of the iceberg now, which in the UK grading system where a hundred is a myth, this is as high as it gets. Thank you, my friend, for letting me into your marvellous world, for teaching me so much and for all the Russian proverbs that will always make me laugh and remember you when we are no longer reachable by hug.
