Category: Senses

A collection of moments and moods organized by the senses — taste, sight, sound, scent, touch

  • Natalie Portman for Vogue — just hit the right mood

    Natalie Portman for Vogue — just hit the right mood

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    Natalie Portman for Vogue — just hit the mood right

    Today I revisited Natalie Portman’s shoot for the May 2025 issue of Vogue Australia, and once again, I felt drawn to look closely. Not because of the fashion tricks.Not because of the looks. But because of the mood.

    Natalie seems completely in her own state there. No performance, nothing excessive. Just calm, composed, whole. No showing off. No “let me prove something to you.” And somehow, that leaves a deeper impression on me than any attempt to impress ever could. I love the silence in these frames — сonfident, not boring. When nothing needs to be added to make it “interesting.”

    Quiet elegance. Nothing loud, just everything in its right place.

    photographer: Lachlan Bailey 
    stylist: Christine Centenera

    Why did it strike me so much?

    Maybe because she isn’t trying to impress anyone. Maybe because it’s rare to see a woman not pushing an image — just standing there quietly, fully present. Some of the looks are, of course, editorial and complex — that’s how fashion shoots go. But even then, she doesn’t get lost in the clothes.Because the focus stays on her. On how she carries herself. And I like that.

    This shoot for Vogue feels like a strong espresso with pepper.
    Bitterness. Precision. Warmth.
    A stunning shoot. A stunning Natalie Portman

    Vogue Australia, May 2025. Thank you.
    That is pure aesthetic pleasure.

  • How Life Feels

    How Life Feels

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    How Life Feels

    I used to think of happiness as something distant, vague, hard to reach — as if it were a goal I had to achieve in the future: “Once I become more successful, lose weight, earn more, move away, find the right thing — then I’ll be happy.” Not as something I could actually feel now, live through every day — in simple sensations and impressions.

    But happiness doesn’t come through achievement — it comes through perception. I truly noticed it for the first time in Istanbul — but it wasn’t about the city. It was about the senses.

    Happiness for All the Senses

    When I first arrived in Istanbul, I felt like I was in an extraordinary place. Maybe it was all the associations I had with it — Turkish TV series, Tarkan’s songs, the history of the Ottoman Empire, and the atmosphere of One Thousand and One Nights. But I don’t think that was the reason.

    You just step out into the street in this beautiful, ancient city, breathe in the air — filled with sea, spices, pastry — and you already feel good. Then you take a ferry ride across the Bosphorus — gulls, a soft breeze, mosque domes rising in the distance. Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, quiet courtyards, tiles, and that blue amulet in the shape of an eye, everywhere. But Istanbul isn’t just a treat for the eyes. There are fragrant flowers planted all over the city, rose water, the smell of street food, the scent of fresh simit — it’s an aromatic paradise. And the taste? Honey-soaked baklava with pistachios, strong tea in a beautiful glass, the perfect Turkish breakfast on a rooftop, lahmacun with ayran. Sounds bring their own kind of joy too — seagulls crying out, the horn of the ferry, the call to prayer echoing across the city, the sound of waves in the Bosphorus. And touch has its place too — rough ceramic tiles in a hammam, the thin tea glass warming your fingers, the soft fur of a street cat rubbing against your leg — and you feel like you’ve entered another dimension.

    I didn’t question anything at the time. I just enjoyed it. The realization came later, once the details faded: Happiness isn’t so much a result as it is a side effect of attention. When you stop chasing and start noticing — it comes on its own, through scent, taste, sound, light, touch.