BY: JEANETTE SMITH & TRYSTANNE CUNNINGHAM STORY CONCEPT BY: BRIAN ESTERLE PHOTO CREDIT: CHARLES SCHOENBERGER MODELS: DEXTER SIMMONS & XUE XUE ZHA HAIR STYLING: ROBERT DOUGLAS MAKE UP: ERNESTO ROBLEDO CELESTINE PEARL URBANO WARDROBE DESIGNS: JAD RACHA ACCESSORIES: LANCE VICTOR MOORE PHOTO RETOUCHING: NATALYA BELAYA
Story Behind the Cover
S an Francisco is a city at the forefront of change, but rising changes from the tech boom have been slowly pushing out the
arts and culture that make San Francisco so unique. As soon as Editor In Chief and Founder of TrooRa [Trystanne Cunningham] noticed the beautiful, bespoke jeweled masks from San Francisco-based designer Lance Victor Moore, she knew it would be the perfect showcase for our issue’s theme and the feature of our cover shoot. The photoshoot combines the trials of being alone and the equally arduous journey to knowing oneself. The concept for this story, envisioned by Brian Esterle, was to reveal how much “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” to quote the late Maya Angelou. Our models—Dexter Simmons and Xue Xue Zha—put on their masks as they first journey through themselves, asking “who am I?” The models must feel warmth in their own skin.
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