A Spoonful of Apple Helps The Poison Go Down

Several years ago I had an idea for a photo series of rebellious fairytale characters. After doing an initial Snow White shoot, something felt very wrong. Besides the fact I had no idea how to work the camera I borrowed (I used automatic settings - eek!) I also had very little vision and the final images weren't very obvious that my model was even meant to be Snow White.

Thankfully my third year of university gave me the break I wanted, and I was able to take a class which was essentially learning how to use a DSLR. For our final project we had to create a series of photographs that were linked through a story, and what better way than to finally explore the full potential of my series, right? Unfortunately I was again wrong. Knowing I only needed two photos from each shoot for my final project, I got lazy. While Sleeping Beauty and Jack and the Giant Bean Stalk had great concepts, I didn't push myself as hard as I could have. Once the project was over, there wasn't much to show for it, and still the meanings weren't fully clear.

By this point, I had decided that with my ridiculously pale skin and dark hair, I should model for Snow White myself. With the help of good friend Lauren Schultz behind the camera, who thankfully took the same class I did, we experimented with the Snow White concept several times over the year, but it still didn't feel pushed enough.

Finally over Halloween we got together, and with a new outfit and better props, the images in this post were produced. It's taken a long time, but it's only confirmed that if you know you can do better, keep trying and you'll eventually get there.