Eleanor, Beth Siveyer, and Arvida Byström were inspired by the Swedish tradition of Easter witches, when young girls put on their mothers’ silk scarves, recycled sheets, or old dresses and exchange feathers, flowers, and handmade cards bearing the slogan “Glad Påsk!” (Happy Easter!) in return for candy.
Photos by Eleanor. Art direction by Beth. Models: Arvida, Hanna, and Maria. Collages by Beth, featuring plants and flowers she found on location, and childhood photos provided by the models. These photographs feature Hanna and her brother, Arvida’s mother and friends, and Maria’s sister. Thanks to Nao Koyabu for styling, Christina Corway at S:Management for hair and makeup, and Beyond Retro, J&B the Shop, and Paper Dress Vintage for providing clothes. All other clothes are Nao’s, Eleanor’s, or models’ own.Beth Siveyer is based in London and is the founder/curator of the feminist zine Girls Get Busy. She takes photos, makes GIFs, designs hats with Arvida (Beanie Babes), and works in a women’s sex shop.
41 Comments
This is my favourite photo set from one of my favourite Rookie themes ever!!
slightly-surreal.blogspot.co.uk
yay we do this in finland too, it was my favorite thing as a kid! wonderful pictures!
This must be one of my favorite photoshoots on Rookie! And I gasped when I saw that picture of Kirsten Dunst on the front page. I think she is one of the most beautiful creatures in the universe. Can’t wait for that post.
Love……
♥ ♡♡
omg these are perfecttttiiiooon <3 the kitsch ness and arvida and beth and omggg the design, location and photography is amazing, the grain is gorgeousss…..what camera and film did you use?
loveee this meeeemmmmpp
for this i used a yashica t3 and a canon 300 with a 50mm f/1.4 lens. i generally just use whatever film i can afford: normally either the stuff you can get in poundland, fujifilm superia or when i’m willing to spend a bit more my favourite is kodak gold. i also prefer higher ISO film, like 400 or 800 as 200 is always a bit dark in rainy england. and i always do colour grading in photoshop after too~ hope that helps!
these are so amazing omg ♡♡♡ 5, 9 and 12 are so perffff and kitschy and wherever this was shot is gorgeous, the colours of the house in number 7 are so perfect, gahhh
♡♡ (^з^)-☆ ♡♡
there are no words for this. it’s just utterly perfect. i am seriously in love with those pictures.
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oh my. 23 is taken in my hometown. the house looks very similar to the houses in my old neighbourhood (where me and my best friend knocked on doors dressed like this every easter), that was lovely to see!
this is the best rookie photoshoot ever!!
Why don’t we do this?! It is adorable :-)
This is so gorgeous and amazing!!! I’m in love…… This sounds like the coolest tradition ever. I especially liked the old family photos at the end.
So cool! This reminds me of my Swedish grandmother. She had lots of her grandma’s old Swedish cook books…. yuck, dried fish and liver. These are just gorgeous!
So dreamy and pretty and fairy-tale and happy childhood memories and almost too perfect but just the right amount and wow *swoon*
Påskkäringar!
breathtaking
Beautiful!
These are just too beautiful :) love it.
These are all so captivating! I love it.
<3 Melissa
I love this so much! <3
Arvida!!!!!!!!
Also, Rooks, every time I wait until 7:00 or 11:00 for a new post, it doesn’t become accessible until 15 minutes, maybe hours later. This website is ingrained in my daily routine, what gives?
There was a while when those 11 PM posts were consistently late and that was all my fault, but that hasn’t happened for a while — have you still been experiencing delays? Because we are also having some weird problem where a significant number of people can’t see the 7 PM and 11 PM posts even hours after they’re published. (Today’s 7 PM post I delayed by 5 minutes to see if I could get Ruby’s entry in there under the gun.)
Hmm. Occasionally we push publication back a few minutes if we’re still working on it, or sometimes WordpRess is slow, but there should never be delays of hours! (If that’s happening, let us know.)
love love love love LOVE this omg
What a unique idea…I love reading up on not-as-well-known holidays and/or traditions. And witches are always awesome. I have this vintage handmade all-black dress. It would really go with that tradition. My favorite dress from this is probably the white, orange, and green floral one. Luckily I’m not the only one who still likes head scarves!
This is hands down my favorite Rookie photo shoot!! All the pictures are gorgeous and magical and I love them!!!!!
I can’t even articulate how beautiful these are – you’re taking a wonderful old tradition that few people know about and using it to make new art that we can all enjoy, it’s so incredible, thank you for sharing it with us!!!
it’s like emma dajska sharing that Polish tradition of the buried secrets; know we know about the Swedish “good witches” too… these ceremonials of women all over the world are being continued by us through rookie, we’re helping to keep them alive, i love it!
This has got to be my new favorite Rookie photoshoot. Everything is so perfect and magical. Plus the outfits in this are wonderfully put together. 3, 14, and 19 have stolen my heart. Well done, ladies! <3
xo, Tori
These are absolutely perfect. There is a certain melancholy feel to them. My favorites are #21 and #22! Good work Rookie – as always! xx c:
these are so purettyy!
The last three are so cute! And this tradition is… lovely, great!
This is very beautiful and it really reminds me of when i did this as a kid. Thank you Rookie for making me remember some childhood memories!
Sweden has a lot of odd but beautiful traditions, like midsummers-eve, allhelgona and valborg. (google it) These photos makes me feel like sending in my own pictures of swedish traditions.
Love!
is that the same Arvida who was in that art experiment thing with the bed? I can’t remember what exactly it was called but she and another guy had to stay there for like a week. She looks really similar but my facial recognition can be a bit crap ;)
anyway, it’s an absolutely beautiful photoset.
These pictures are very beautiful. It has been such a long time since I dressed up as an easter witch. I love that you included some “real” easter witches. :)
Beautiful
I adore this.
I was also really excited to see Arvida Byström featured again… I love her!
I love the photos! What camera do you use ?
#19 is so pretty!
such a gorgeous photoset! makes me want to dress up and make daisy chains.
Uhhh these look innocently creepy!! Like that!