Down The Rabbit Hole

I've been in the states for a couple of weeks, two of my friends are getting married and I wanted to celebrate extra hard for them.

During my holiday, I've managed to get a couple of photoshoots done for the Fairytales series I've been working on. The first of which I present to you...

Alice in Wonderland!

This is a photoshoot I've wanted to do for a long time. The craziness from the story leads to all kinds of possibilities within photoshoots, but since the ideas are all there already, I wanted to take a softer approach, play with colour and composition more than actual concept.

The playground at Millennium Park, Chicago offered the ideal location for this shoot. Originally thinking of Lincoln Park, I stumbled across this new addition to downtown since my last visit, and instantly knew I'd found the place.

The giant table, the upside down tree, the labyrinth of mirrors – it was perfect. This was a collaboration shoot with Lauren Schultz, as we've been doing fairytale photoshoots side by side since I first realised the concept almost two years ago.

I brought along some props, but even without them, our model Taylor French was perfect and barely needed any instruction. Being an acting major, she kept in character even when the perfect moments to laugh/sigh in frustration came along (Saturday is a good day to take the kids to the park – who would have thought!)

Before leaving the UK, I found a great stall in St Nicholas' Market, Bristol. It sold a variety of playing cards, some scenic, a lot to do with British monarchy and history, and one devoted to mushrooms. I love mushrooms, the fact they grow from decay, the thousands of different varieties, that some can cause death, others hallucinations, and some just simply taste great in soup.

Attempting to play with size, we found upside down trees within the park, and a giant round table (no pictures from there made the final cut, unfortunately), really helped the Alice in Wonderland theme come into itself.

It's no secret that Lewis Carroll had some not entirely okay concepts behind the stories, and having Taylor look scared, vulnerable and unsure of her surroundings, helped heighten the sense that this was a child being forced into an adult world.

And of course, no Alice photoshoot would be complete without painting the roses red.

More fairytales coming very soon!