Aegean Goddess Anastasia

A Spartan lineage reborn across Monemvasia, Nafplio, and Derveni

Interview by LeDesir Magazine

Between ancient stone and the eternal sea, photographer Theo Skudlark composes a visual hymn to ancestry, strength, and sensual grace. His latest editorial, Aegean Goddess, was photographed across Monemvasia, Nafplio, and Derveni — three cities that cradle the mythic heart of Greece. At its center stands Anastasia, a modern muse of Spartan descent, whose quiet power becomes both subject and symbol.

Internationally celebrated for his cinematic imagery and meditative storytelling, Skudlark has long been drawn to the tension between stillness and emotion. As he once told Vogue, “If you can evoke emotion, you’ve already made something timeless.” In Aegean Goddess, emotion moves through stone and sunlight — an homage to heritage, beauty, and the elemental force of womanhood.

We sat down with Theo to discuss the vision, symbolism, and spirit behind this extraordinary body of work.

The Genesis of a Journey
Q: Theo, what first inspired this project across three Greek cities?
Theo Skudlark: It began with Anastasia — her story, her lineage. She carries Spartan blood with an almost mythic quietness. I wanted to build something that wasn’t about mythology as costume, but ancestry as emotion. Monemvasia, Nafplio, and Derveni each offered a different note in the same symphony — endurance, grace, reflection. Together, they told her story.





Ancestry as Aesthetic
Q: You’ve often described your photography as visual poetry. How does this series express that?
Theo: Each frame is a stanza. I wanted to speak of lineage without language — through texture, posture, silence. In Monemvasia, the stone walls became metaphors for discipline and strength. Nafplio’s light softened that with a sense of romance and remembrance. Derveni was the exhale — the place where legacy becomes introspection.
Q: How did Anastasia’s own heritage inform the collaboration?
Theo: She brought truth. She didn’t perform her ancestry; she inhabited it. There was a moment where she stood in the fortress overlooking the Aegean — it wasn’t posing, it was presence. Her stillness had gravity. It reminded me that the Spartan legacy isn’t aggression; it’s endurance through elegance.





Across the Cities of the Soul
Q: Let’s start with Monemvasia. What did it represent to you?
Theo: Monemvasia is all strength — carved in stone, built against time. It’s a fortress of memory. There, I wanted to explore the idea of woman as citadel — unyielding yet human. The wind became our collaborator; it gave motion to stillness.
Q: And Nafplio?
Theo: Nafplio was tenderness. The light is softer, the architecture breathes differently. The Palamidi Fortress became her stage — she gazed toward the horizon draped in silk that caught the Aegean wind. That shot, for me, was liberation — strength rendered as grace.
Q: Derveni seems more introspective in tone.
Theo: Completely. Derveni is the afterword, the return to self. It’s quieter, gentler — the landscape strips you of pretense. We ended there at dusk, the sea turning to silver. It felt like the moment when myth finally exhales and becomes human again.





Technique and Intuition
Q: You’re known for your mastery of natural light. How did Greece shape your visual approach?
Theo: The Greek sun is unapologetic — divine and dangerous. It forces surrender. I used minimal equipment, no artificial lighting, just the dialogue between light and surface. I chased shadow as much as I chased illumination. In Spartan philosophy, restraint is a virtue — I wanted the same for these images.
Q: Were there any moments of improvisation that defined the shoot?
Theo: Always. In Nafplio, a sudden gust tore through the veil we planned to use. The fragments wrapped around Anastasia’s hair and face, and the shot became something transcendent — fragility as freedom. I think that’s when the series found its soul.





Between Myth and Modernity
Q: The imagery feels both ancient and modern — how did you balance that duality?
Theo: I didn’t want to reconstruct history; I wanted to reimagine it through a contemporary lens. The styling was sculptural but minimal, closer to Balenciaga or Saint Laurent than to costume. Myth exists in gesture — not in props. Anastasia embodied that: she became an echo of her ancestors in a thoroughly modern frame.
Q: There’s an undeniable spiritual undercurrent in these images.
Theo: It wasn’t planned. Spirituality in photography isn’t something you can stage; it emerges in the pauses — between breaths, between movements, in the split-second before awareness. Greece has that silence built into its bones. It’s impossible not to feel it.





Legacy and Reflection
Q: When you look at the final images, what stays with you?
Theo: The stillness. Every photograph in this series feels like a held breath — an offering between generations. Anastasia carried her history into the frame; I just tried to listen. The real beauty lies in that dialogue — between woman and world, myth and modernity.
Q: Does this project mark a new direction for you — exploring ancestry as theme?
Theo: It opened a door. Heritage, to me, is an untold visual language. I’m drawn to it — not as nostalgia, but as a way of understanding time. But Greece… Greece lingers. It’s not a place you leave; it’s a place that stays with you.





Closing Reflections
Q: If this series had a guiding phrase — a single line that defines it — what would it be?
Theo: “Between stone and sea, she speaks in silence.”



That’s what it felt like — to photograph a goddess not of myth, but of memory.





Credits

Photographer: Theo Skudlark IG: loongwind
Model: Anastasia   IG: healingwithtess
Locations: Monemvasia, Nafplio, Derveni, Greece
Editorial Title: Aegean Goddess
Interview by: LeDesir Magazine







© VÉLAIRE Studio / Theo Skudlark 2025