White pigeons flutter above the nude silhouettes of model Arizona Muse and French actress Rebecca Dayan in these romantic new photographs from New York-based Max Snow. The monochrome images feature in a solo exhibition and a publication from the Parisian concept store Colette, both named The Lady of Shalott in honor of the 19th century poetic themes that subconsciously infuse them. “I unknowingly referenced a lot of images of artists’ interpretations of the Lady of Shalott before I even came across Lord Alfred Tennyson’s poem,” explains Snow, who has previously shown at Kathleen Cullen Fine Arts in New York and Galerie Serieuze Zaken in Amsterdam. “The idea in creating these images was to make people connect to the past—to more mythological or spiritual times.” The artist comes from a storied background, as the brother of the greatly missed art world darling Dash Snow and a member of the famed de Menil clan. He recalls meeting Vogue favorite Muse after she purchased one of his pieces at auction and came back wanting more: “I said, 'How about you pose for one and I’ll give you one for free?'” Dayan, who recently appeared in Jesse & Celeste Forever and From Paris with Love and met Snow through a mutual friend, hadn’t expected her aviary accessories. “I was naked in a tent with birds flying in every direction,” she laughs of the shoot, for which Snow used eating pigeons rescued from a Manhattan slaughterhouse. “We freed them at the end,” she says. “It was such a beautiful moment!” 

The Lady of Shalott is on view at Colette, Paris, until February 2.