Photographer: Vita Phoenix @vita_phoenix

Wardrobe Stylist: Rachael Bettencourt @goingthextrastyle

Hair and Makeup Artist: Luisa Soler @thisisluisasoler

Model: Olivia Miraglia (The Source Models) @livmiraglia

Model: Emilio Flores (The Source Models) @emilioflores

Art Installation: Ulysses Gryka @uliksgryka

Story: Vita Phoenix, Sarah-Kathryn Bryan @heck_at_e

Each day for the past year, Ulysses Gryka has stacked stones at Fort Washington Park to resemble human figures. Unlike Sisyphus, the creator of these Sisyphus Stones considers his task of moving boulders a privilege instead of a punishment. The sculptures, like the myth, are held together by tenacity and gravity: each in tension with the other.

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic and after several severe storms, Gryka paused his practice for the time being. However, the memory of these stones lends the site a lingering poignance. Despite the devastation the pandemic has wrought, the site continues to be a tourist attraction. The photographer was interested in making her subject an unusual location instead of the played-out Brooklyn Bridge.

She has taken the story and appropriated it to be more about love, loss, passion, betrayal, comfort and pain. The stone towers look out into the water, as if ready to leave or searching for the ones who’ve left, and one of the main models, Emilio, ends up leaving alone, or going after Olivia, in the end.

@thesourcemodels

#itsallaboutthesource

Jeff Fuller The Source Models

Petra Pedraza The Source Models