Fairy Tales and other Stories
| Large format color coffee table book of self portrait photographs. Hardcover, 13 x 11 in, 120 pages. coming soon.... Description Fairy Tales though they are, “unreal, they are not untrue; that while what these stories tell about does not happen in fact, it must happen as inner experience and personal development; that fairy tales depict in imaginary and symbolic form the essential steps in growing up and achieving an independent existence.” Bruno Bettelheim Through self-portraiture, this series invites the viewer into a world of imagination and fairy tales. The images depict a fantasy land in which the figure is caught in a moment of isolated contemplation. It is a mirror to personal inner experience, a visual recreation of my unconscious, like a half forgotten dream that articulates emotion rather than action. Inside my dreams, I am someone else. I create characters, like alter egos, presented as recognizable archetypes. The figure inside the image often looks away from the viewer, the face hidden by a turn of the body or by a mask. I hope the viewer will imagine themselves inside the fairy tale, and interpret the narrative of the image as one might interpret a fairy tale, searching for hidden meaning inside the story. This series speaks to living in the 21st Century, a time when we are constantly bombarded with noise, information, and moving images. Still imagery, by contrast, allows us to shut out the noise and hear ourselves. I use photography to both escape and convey the overwhelming nature of our modern reality. The pastoral setting of this work recalls a simpler time, while reminding us of humanity’s attempt to conquer the enormity of nature. I draw on themes in classic fairy tales - beauty, chastity and passivity – not as a comment on post-feminism, but as an expression of a more universal experience. My aim with the use of folklore is to suggest the continuity of the human condition: outside, the physical world changes with dizzying speed; inside, our cerebral world remains timeless. These are images from the world of my imagination and dreams. I hope the viewer will spend time with each photograph to experience how their reaction changes and deepens, morphing from my imagination to theirs. |
 |