Kristin Gallegos’ Eight Dolls for an Autumn Moon feels less like a photobook and more like a lost reel from an Italian Giallo film. It flickers with eerie beauty, lingers in quiet dread, and hums with the tension of something unseen just outside the frame. Inspired by the stylish horror thrillers of the ’60s and ’70s like Dario Argento’s Suspiria and Mario Bava’s Blood and Black Lace, Gallegos creates a world that feels both like a love letter and a psychological study.
At its core, Eight Dolls follows a fashion photographer caught in a surreal nightmare as she tries to protect her model friends from a serial killer. It’s a familiar setup: fashion, fear, obsession. But Gallegos shifts the lens inward, using the language of horror to explore something more intimate. The quiet, everyday paranoia of being a woman. The feeling of being watched. The subtle but constant sense of vulnerability, even in spaces that should feel safe.
The book’s eight muses — Alix Brown, Ashley Smith, Coco Baudelle, Paige Elkington, Cora Keegan, Dani Dolinger, Chavi St. Hill, and Gabrielle Montes de Oca — channel the energy of classic Giallo heroines. Striking, enigmatic, caught in a web of desire and danger. Shot on film and Polaroid between Los Angeles and New York City, the images capture a dreamlike unease. Otherworldly lighting, richly textured interiors, red lacquer nails resting on a rotary phone, an obscured figure in the background. Gallegos understands the power of cinematic suggestion, the space between glamour and terror, beauty and violence.
What makes Eight Dolls especially gripping is its text. Written by Jasmine Poulton, the words unfold like a fragmented screenplay, giving each woman an inner monologue that brings her to life beyond the images. There’s no distance here. Instead, it feels personal, as if the characters are whispering their fears directly to the viewer. The story is punctuated by illustrations from Dawn Aquarius, adding to the book’s surreal, vintage horror aesthetic. A foreword by Ian Svenonius places it in the world of cult cinema and subversive storytelling.
Published by Snap Collective in Copenhagen, Eight Dolls for an Autumn Moon is a hardcover, 192-page edition with only 250 copies available. It’s the kind of book that lingers. Like a film you can’t quite shake or a dream you only half remember.
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