Sanctum
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Lox & Chain
Sanctum treats jewellery as relics. For this series, Lox & Chain's signet rings, cuffs and chains were frozen into large blocks of ice the night before the shoot and photographed as they slowly surfaced, like objects recovered from somewhere sacred. Every block melted differently, so the composition changed from minute to minute and the pieces seemed to move on their own. We worked tethered and shot continuously for almost six hours, waiting for the exact moment when the metal broke through the surface and the light caught the edges of the engraving.
The whole series was shot in a single afternoon against black velvet, with one strobe and a strip of white card to draw a thin line of light across the ice. It plays with time and texture: hard metal against melting water, sharp highlights against soft shadow, permanence against something that disappears while you look at it. There is no retouching on the ice; every crack, bubble and trace of frost is real. The images were later printed in large format for the brand's flagship, where they hang next to the actual pieces, so visitors can compare the frozen version with the one they can wear.
