Losing The Glass Slipper

Cinderella

This photoshoot was a slight spur of the moment, in that I hadn't thought about my Cinderella concept for quite some time, and originally had no intention of doing any Fairytale photoshoots in Baltimore.

However, talking about the project with my awesome friend Beth Emmerich, she was keen to jump in as a model and we made time during my stay to hit up the thrift store and look for a Cinderella worthy dress.

We also hit up Jewel, getting a large pumpkin and a mini pumpkin, while Beth used shoes she had worn to a wedding. If I could have changed anything about the shoot, the only thing would have been the weather – it was so sunny that some shots were pretty hard to get the camera settings right. Either way, I'm really happy with the end result!

Cinderella is a classic tale of not giving up hope. Of course, one of the most famous lines from the story is "A Dream Is A Wish Your Heart Makes", and I was keen to explore the relationship between this idea and its interactions with modern day society.

A lot of people grow up on Disney films, and get an idea of the perfect boy in their mind. They stop at no less and genuinely believe they deserve to be treated like a princess, showered with presents constantly and not be expected to make that kind of effort in return. There's nothing wrong with that, but I worry that it's a bit too idealist.

In my series, Cinderella is waiting, and waiting, and waiting for Prince Charming to come along. Until she realises that sitting around and wishing all day isn't bringing her the results she expected.

After going to the ball alone, she carries her dreams home with her, no Prince Charming in sight.

Like a true Princess who's dreams have all come falling down, she collapses down.

I used Lightroom to edit the dress colour throughout the series, from a darker blue to a white-grey, to signify the fading of her dreams. Finally, Cinderella comes to her senses, picks herself up off the ground, and uses the glass slipper to shatter her distorted sense of relationships.

*the link to Beth's name goes to her Etsy page, where you can see her amazing artwork and merch for sale.

Part of Your World, Reprival

The Little Mermaid, Part Two

The beautiful weather in Chicago gave the perfect opportunity to revisit The Little Mermaid concept. While I was happy with the way the original photos turned out, the weather had not been pleasant that day, and Lauren Schultz (model for the shoot) also worked on a killer new bikini top for halloween the following year, so it made sense to reshoot.

With the whole day ahead of us, we were able to visit two beaches to get a full variety of shots I had always had my heart set on.

Lauren was an incredible model, clambering over rocks and jumping straight into Lake Michigan to get the perfect shot. In fact, as we were wrapping up, a group of spectators even asked who she models for, evident of her natural ability.

Using the Clark/Division and 12th St beaches, we slowly photographed our way through the afternoon, stopping only at Walgreens to get a bottle of water.

It was evident this photoshoot was meant to be redone for further perfection, as on 12th St, we were even joined by a group of photogenic seagulls, giving Ariel and Scuttle a reunion they deserve.

While most of my fairytale shoots have a concept for each photo within a larger group, the more the day went on, it was evident this fairytale was destined to tell a larger story.

With Ariel emerging from the sea with her human legs, she washes up onto the beach, alone and unsure, waiting for Prince Eric.

Of course, Eric by now has found a great job in the city and has discovered the delights of online casual dating, so his visits to the beach are less frequent.

Ariel, quickly realising the world she has longed for is not what it seems, manages to drag herself from the sea, and take on the human world by herself – #independentwoman!

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!

I'll See You When I Fall Asleep

Sleeping Beauty was among the original fairytale ideas for the Alternate Fairytales series thought up oh so many (five) years ago, and last weekend it was finally shot in all the glory I imagined.

Chelsea (my model and close friend) and I united the earliest time of day I can remember without having slept over the night before (neither of us are remotely morning people). She was very enthusiastic about the idea, and the more we prepared for it, the more the ideas came flooding forward.

Prince Charming, if you didn't catch on.

Aurora is one of the princesses who I never really understood the appeal of. When people think of the Disney version, they imagine her blonde head on a pillow, just sleeping. To me she has the least personality, but that also leaves more room for play when amping up the alternative side.

I bought some empty gelatin capsules and filled them with glitter. I was also donated a few wine bottles as my consumption rates have dropped from what they used to be. Chelsea brought along some flower garlands, and with a combination of all these, we experimented with Sleeping Beauty causing destruction to herself through drinking and drugs, ultimately ending up on the streets.

Part of Our World

Keeping with the fairytale theme of my last post, the images in this post are the results of a shoot themed on "The Little Mermaid" from earlier this year.
Being one of my favourite childhood Disney movies, during my teens I researched the story more and found the ending of the original fairytale to be far, far darker than a happy marriage to the prince of Ariel's dreams.

Not wanting to go quite so dark (and not having a male model on this occasion), I tried to take the stance that opposed to her prince abandoning her for another woman and leaving her to die a mortal, my version of Ariel would instead be tempted by the riches of the world, but with a over-demanding attitude and unworkable desires, she ultimately remains alone and once again longs for the sea.

Despite it being mid-May the weather was still pretty cold, so I was conscious of keeping my wonderful model Lauren Schultz as warm as possible. After climbing around on the rocks and getting some of the shots we had pre-planned, we wrapped up warm pretty quickly without much space for spontaneous experiments.

The images were taken on 12th Street beach in Chicago, and as is quite obvious, I later edited the blue hue to make the ocean look unrealistic in order to mirror my Ariel's impractical expectations of general society.

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.