Spring is that time of the year when you put away the jewel-tones in exchange for pastels and citrus hues. We thought what better way to welcome longer days, clearer weather (in the Southern Hemisphere anyway) and our third shoot, Spring Fling, by featuring an array of fresh colours like chartreuse, orange and lime.

For this story, Genesis and I continue to focus on queer Asian visibility and colourism within the Asian community, where light complexion is perceived more beautiful or prized as opposed to darker skin. To highlight the beauty of all skin colour, we previously worked with three Filipino subjects of different complexions in our debut Seasons of Queer series, Autumn Dreaming and repeat this casting technique for our latest chapter.

We open up this discourse further in Spring Fling on who is being recognised as Asian and how the term is more exclusive than it is inclusive sometimes. Ask someone in the Western world and their definition of Asian might differ greatly to someone from East Asia. This inconsistency in acknowledgement is prevalent even with people of Central Asia or Western Asia who, by definition, are considered part of Asia geographically but are left out from the conversation.

In contrast to the moody Winter Cocooning chapter, our subjects are bathed in warm, golden lighting and a state of slow awakening for this spring story. Vibrant fruit, flowers and fabric, which have become part of the mise-en-scene in all Seasons of Queer series, add a hint of softness and fine art element.

Model – Harahm, Jonash, and Raveena
Photographer – Henry Ng
Stylist – Genesis Mansilongan