Urban Nomad: Reimagining Archives

Originally created for South African designer Clive Rundle, this project explores the idea of a dystopian, androgynous character moving through a world that feels both dreamlike and slightly undone. There is a subtle tension running throughout the project: something between futuristic nomadism and a distorted Alice in Wonderland fantasy. 

Credits // Photographer: Justin Dingwall with Lampost, Creative Director: Kassie Naidoo with Lampost, Fashion Designer: Clive Rundle, Production: LAMPOST, Executive Producer: Jodie Ennik with LAMPOST, Producer: Sarah Walters, Videographer and Editor: Ed Blignaut, Stylist: Thom van Dyk with Lampost, Makeup: Lesley Whitby with Lampost, Hair: Karen van Wyngaard, Model: Mariska Prinsloo with Fanjam Model Management, Photographic Assistant: Fanus Beetge

Creative direction by Kassie Naidoo helped shape the visual language of the story, while the wider team of LAMPOST collaborators brought texture and atmosphere to every frame.

Makeup artist Lesley Whitby stripped the beauty look back by bleaching the model’s eyebrows entirely, giving her face an almost alien quality. Colour was then introduced very intentionally through flushed blush and rich red lips, stained at the centre as though she had been sucking on cherries.

One of Justin’s favourite images from the series was photographed in Clive’s own garden, using one of the designer’s artworks as a backdrop. It became a defining image for the project, capturing the layered relationship between fashion, art and environment that shaped the shoot as a whole.

Years later, the project has found a new life through AI-generated motion. Rather than recreating the images, the moving visuals build onto their existing atmosphere, stretching the narrative further and allowing the world of Urban Nomad to feel immersive in an entirely new way. The result is nostalgic and futuristic — proof that strong visual storytelling can continue evolving long after the original moment has passed.