Rokas Darulis releases 'Wild and Free'
Fashion photographer Rokas Darulis has published 'Wild and Free', a limited-edition book of 132 images. The project marks a personal return to the Lithuanian landscape, featuring intimate, collaborative portraits made over five years.
Fashion photographer Rokas Darulis has released a new photobook titled 'Wild and Free'. The limited-edition volume contains 132 photographs from a five-year personal project shot in the forests, lakes, meadows, and coastline of his native Lithuania.
The book represents an escape for Darulis from the commercial pressures of the fashion industry. He describes it as "an escape from the confines of the commercial fashion world." The images were created one-to-one with models and friends, often during early morning or late dusk light.
Women and landscape
The photographs present a performative and sculptural approach. Bodies are shown in harmony with the natural environment-emerging from water, disappearing into foliage, or balancing on rocks. The report states there is no obvious styling agenda or product placement. The viewer is brought into a serene space where skin and setting connect.
The book moves between black and white and a restrained colour palette. It shifts from intimate portraits to near-abstraction. Darulis's 15-year career in fashion photography informs the discipline behind the images' apparent simplicity.
The inspiration of home
The project is deeply connected to Darulis's origins. Born in Šiauliai, Lithuania, he dedicates the book to his grandfather, Stasys Meiženis, who gave him his first Soviet-era camera. "Because of you I discovered photography," Darulis writes in the introduction. The process was fluid, with the environment dictating the direction of each day's shoot.
A sense of togetherness and discovered ideas runs through the work. The report notes playfulness, vulnerability, and occasional melancholy in the images. The visual shouting common in fashion photography is absent.
Photography as therapy
Darulis admits the project has been therapeutic. It helped him through personal lows while allowing him to appreciate highs. "This work is the reason I got into photography, and it’s the reason I stay," he says. The book celebrates youth, beauty, and nature, but also reconnects him with the initial impulse to make pictures.
The report emphasizes that the work is not an angry rejection of fashion. Instead, Darulis has applied his learned understanding of form, light, and gesture to create something intimate. The body's physicality is celebrated as an element within the landscape.
Premium publication details
'WILD AND FREE' is a premium hardcover publication. The report provides the following specifications for the limited edition:
| Specification | Detail |
|---|---|
| Page Count | 160 pages |
| Photograph Count | 132 curated images |
| Edition Size | 1,000 copies |
| Project Duration | Five years |
| Designer | Tadas Karpavičius |
Darulis has developed a consistent visual language across the book's varied approaches. The real freedom, the report suggests, lies not in photographing without clothes, but in photographing without commercial expectations. The space in the photographs allows them to breathe. After 15 years of being told what to photograph, Rokas Darulis has finally published the pictures he wanted to take.
