'Brand New Ancients' by Rafael Pavarotti for British Vogue February 2021

Rafael Pavarotti [IG] photographs ‘Brand New Ancients’, starring Adut Akech, Akuol Deng Atem, Aliet Sarah, Nyarach Abouch Ayuel, Nyaueth Riam, and Shanelle Nyasiase. Kate Phelan styles the spring 2021, bold-looks fashion story against a backdrop of modern hieroglyphs for British Vogue’s February 2021 issue. / Set designer Gary Card; hair by Eugene Souleiman; makeup by Lauren Parsons

For those of us obsessed with references to the prominent place of goddesses in the pre-monotheistic world and the emergence of humanity out of Africa — the intellectual foundation of AOC — the editorial comes in a week when archaeologists in Turkey unearthed a 2,500 year-old temple of Aphrodite. An inscription at the site states “This is the sacred area.”