Playing at Princess and the Pea by Angie Duignan

'How does that story go again?' © Angie Duignan

I discovered this photo as part of the The Imagination of Children exhibit at the V&A Children's Museum during 15 October 2011 - 5 February 2012 when I was exploring their exhibit listings a few weeks ago. The exhibit doesn't appear to have a fairy tale emphasis, but this photo just grabbed me, so I wanted to share.

Haven't you wanted to sit on a pile of mattresses or even sleep on one ever since you first heard the tale?

A small display throughout the Museum bringing together the work of nine visual artists - Sonia Boyce, Sarah Cole, Angie Duignan, Richard Elliott, Rebecca Fortnum, Róisín Loughrey, Martin Newth, Ans Nys and Jessica Voorsanger - each of whom are fascinated by the child's ability to play, pretend and live through their imagination.

Each inspired by a different aspect of the Museum's collections, the works produced include paintings, drawings, photographs and video installations.

New Disney Fairy Tale Images from Annie Leibowitz

I missed this last week, but Annie Liebowitz is continuing her Disney Fairy Tales photo series using celebrities. Here are the new images:

Olivia Wilde with Alec Baldwin

Queen Latifah

Penelope Cruz and Jeff Bridges

LR²H: Photography by Ahef

In my explorations, I recently discovered this photo set on Flickr from Ahef. He has little information about the photos, just labeling them as "Post apocaliptik little red riding hood".

I like them and the variation on the story they tell. And now I'll let them speak for themselves...

LR²H: Photography by Ahef

In my explorations, I recently discovered this photo set on Flickr from Ahef. He has little information about the photos, just labeling them as "Post apocaliptik little red riding hood".

I like them and the variation on the story they tell. And now I'll let them speak for themselves...

Fairy Tales by Miwa Yanagi

Found this article last week: Breaking fairy-tale conventions of beauty by Matthew Larkin and had to learn more, of course, about the Fairy Tale series by Miwa Yanagi mentioned. The Fairy Tale collection is featured here with English titles in its entirety, but of course, I had to share some of the images here, too. Follow the link to see the images in larger scale. Clicking on the images in this post will also take you to larger versions. See if you can identify what fairy tales are represented since I am not including titles.


Here are two paragraphs from the article, explaining Yanagi's inspiration and work but you can learn more at Yanagi's website. It helps if you read Japanese!

Against the tradition of bijinga (beautiful women pictures) that runs through Japanese art, there is an antithetical stream that draws attention to a grotesque and timeworn femininity. In noh plays, the celebrated early 9th-century beauty of the Heian Era, Ono no Komachi, is sometimes portrayed after her looks have faded and she has become an elderly beggar. During the Edo Period (1603-1867), there was the popular theme of Yamauba, a wild witch living the mountains. In the 20th century, the tradition continued with the paintings of ghoulish geisha from artists Shinso Okamoto and Chusei Inagaki.

The apparent contemporary to these precedents, Miwa Yanagi (b. 1967), is showing her "Windswept Women: The Old Girls' Troupe" series of photos concurrently at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (her first solo show in west Japan in seven years), and at the Venice Biennale. Yanagi started receiving critical acclaim from the mid-'90s for her work addressing Japanese feminine stereotypes, and now, as one of Japan's artistic representatives on the international stage, she is garnering further attention with her more mythic gestures. Her "Po-po Nyangnyang" exhibition at the National Museum of Art also includes works from two other series, "Fairy Tale" (2004-06) and ongoing "My Grandmothers."

Some of the images are quite disturbing--those masks!--but I also love that she interpreted lesser known tales such as Brother and Sister, Frau Trude and others.

Fairy Tales by Miwa Yanagi

Found this article last week: Breaking fairy-tale conventions of beauty by Matthew Larkin and had to learn more, of course, about the Fairy Tale series by Miwa Yanagi mentioned. The Fairy Tale collection is featured here with English titles in its entirety, but of course, I had to share some of the images here, too. Follow the link to see the images in larger scale. Clicking on the images in this post will also take you to larger versions. See if you can identify what fairy tales are represented since I am not including titles.


Here are two paragraphs from the article, explaining Yanagi's inspiration and work but you can learn more at Yanagi's website. It helps if you read Japanese!

Against the tradition of bijinga (beautiful women pictures) that runs through Japanese art, there is an antithetical stream that draws attention to a grotesque and timeworn femininity. In noh plays, the celebrated early 9th-century beauty of the Heian Era, Ono no Komachi, is sometimes portrayed after her looks have faded and she has become an elderly beggar. During the Edo Period (1603-1867), there was the popular theme of Yamauba, a wild witch living the mountains. In the 20th century, the tradition continued with the paintings of ghoulish geisha from artists Shinso Okamoto and Chusei Inagaki.

The apparent contemporary to these precedents, Miwa Yanagi (b. 1967), is showing her "Windswept Women: The Old Girls' Troupe" series of photos concurrently at the National Museum of Art, Osaka (her first solo show in west Japan in seven years), and at the Venice Biennale. Yanagi started receiving critical acclaim from the mid-'90s for her work addressing Japanese feminine stereotypes, and now, as one of Japan's artistic representatives on the international stage, she is garnering further attention with her more mythic gestures. Her "Po-po Nyangnyang" exhibition at the National Museum of Art also includes works from two other series, "Fairy Tale" (2004-06) and ongoing "My Grandmothers."

Some of the images are quite disturbing--those masks!--but I also love that she interpreted lesser known tales such as Brother and Sister, Frau Trude and others.

Fairy Tales and SarahPhotoGirl

What do you get when you inspire a rock photographer with fairy tales? Some fun, kitcshy and clever images to enjoy, of course. SarahPhotoGirl has a new exhibit featuring fairy tale imagery (some old and some new fairy tales) displayed at Castle Howard in York in Once Upon A Time...with Yorkshire Coast College. The display supplements another exhibit at the castle, Sing A Song Of Sixpence: Children’s Picture Books.

The photos have been inspired by some of her other recent work, two of which are my favorites of what I've seen of hers: Down the Rabbit Hole and Painting Tulips. The latter was inspired by Pushing Daisies, my most lamented casualty of network television cancellations and my favorite show in years along with Big Bang Theory. Yes, years. Alas...



Anyway, to encourage you to explore Sarah's work, I won't post the Down the Rabbit Hole. Go find it on her Flickr site or professional website. You can read more about her work on her blog. You can also read more about the exhibit at Sarah continues fairytale career, an article on the Scarborough Evening News site.

Fairy Tales and SarahPhotoGirl

What do you get when you inspire a rock photographer with fairy tales? Some fun, kitcshy and clever images to enjoy, of course. SarahPhotoGirl has a new exhibit featuring fairy tale imagery (some old and some new fairy tales) displayed at Castle Howard in York in Once Upon A Time...with Yorkshire Coast College. The display supplements another exhibit at the castle, Sing A Song Of Sixpence: Children’s Picture Books.

The photos have been inspired by some of her other recent work, two of which are my favorites of what I've seen of hers: Down the Rabbit Hole and Painting Tulips. The latter was inspired by Pushing Daisies, my most lamented casualty of network television cancellations and my favorite show in years along with Big Bang Theory. Yes, years. Alas...



Anyway, to encourage you to explore Sarah's work, I won't post the Down the Rabbit Hole. Go find it on her Flickr site or professional website. You can read more about her work on her blog. You can also read more about the exhibit at Sarah continues fairytale career, an article on the Scarborough Evening News site.

Fallen Princesses Project by Dina Goldstein

JPG Magazine has published online the images for Dina Goldstein's Fallen Princesses project. The images are provocative, especially since Goldstein mostly uses Disney's versions of fairy tale princesses which are arguably the most glossy and pervasive versions of fairy tale characters in modern times. This photo essay enters into the common debate over the suitability of fairy tales for children, as well as women's issues and fairy tales, two of the top five most popular topics on SurLaLune's Discussion Boards. They are so popular that I've devoted pages to them with books and links for reference: Children and Fairy Tales and Women and Fairy Tales.

Goldstein explains in her introduction that "these works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues."

I squirm over the choice of "realistic outcome." So many detractors of fairy tales tend to argue along the lines that life is never happy, always miserable, especially if one chooses to marry or seek out long term relationships. Yes, I'm writing in broad generalities and I firmly believe that life is hard and painful, but I also think that the pain is tempered with joy and happiness that is only made greater thanks to the contrast of opposite experiences. Traditional fairy tales tend to promote just that message, not perfectly, but in a much more realistic way, encouraging endurance and perseverance. Here's a summation of one of my basic philosophies: Happily ever after does not mean "without ever a conflict or hardship" but is an optimistic view of overcoming those hardships when they arise in the future, often with the companionship needed to make it easier.

I'm not criticizing Goldstein's work, mind you. I enjoyed it and want to share it, thus this post.

Back to the project. Some images are more poignant or hard hitting for me than others, but I've decided to let them speak for themselves instead of commenting on them individually.

Fallen Princesses Project by Dina Goldstein

JPG Magazine has published online the images for Dina Goldstein's Fallen Princesses project. The images are provocative, especially since Goldstein mostly uses Disney's versions of fairy tale princesses which are arguably the most glossy and pervasive versions of fairy tale characters in modern times. This photo essay enters into the common debate over the suitability of fairy tales for children, as well as women's issues and fairy tales, two of the top five most popular topics on SurLaLune's Discussion Boards. They are so popular that I've devoted pages to them with books and links for reference: Children and Fairy Tales and Women and Fairy Tales.

Goldstein explains in her introduction that "these works place Fairy Tale characters in modern day scenarios. In all of the images the Princess is placed in an environment that articulates her conflict. The '...happily ever after' is replaced with a realistic outcome and addresses current issues."

I squirm over the choice of "realistic outcome." So many detractors of fairy tales tend to argue along the lines that life is never happy, always miserable, especially if one chooses to marry or seek out long term relationships. Yes, I'm writing in broad generalities and I firmly believe that life is hard and painful, but I also think that the pain is tempered with joy and happiness that is only made greater thanks to the contrast of opposite experiences. Traditional fairy tales tend to promote just that message, not perfectly, but in a much more realistic way, encouraging endurance and perseverance. Here's a summation of one of my basic philosophies: Happily ever after does not mean "without ever a conflict or hardship" but is an optimistic view of overcoming those hardships when they arise in the future, often with the companionship needed to make it easier.

I'm not criticizing Goldstein's work, mind you. I enjoyed it and want to share it, thus this post.

Back to the project. Some images are more poignant or hard hitting for me than others, but I've decided to let them speak for themselves instead of commenting on them individually.