Fairyography

What do you think of when you think ‘Cinderella’?

That’s the question I asked of a group of photographers I know. I asked each of them “How do you see Cinderella? Maybe what comes to mind is the castle, or the dress? Maybe the glass slipper or the fairy godmother? Pick something and go with it, make it yours. Creativity is great. It doesn’t need to be an entire story beginning to end of the fairytale. Maybe you want to shoot an entire session around that slipper, or you have something dark and grey planned. Perhaps you like her best before she meets the prince? Small kids, big kids, adults.. steampunk, futuristic, traditional or Disney-like?” I told them “Shoot your style, your model(s), your props, your processing… your idea of Cinderella. You email me your favorite 8-10 watermarked images. I will then make a PDF and upload it to Issuu with links back to each of your pages.”

Below are my own images, followed with a link to the entire collection and other participant’s pages.

When I thought up this collaboration, I pictured myself doing something very close to the Disney type Cinderella. Blue dress, dainty model, sweet, bright location. I tried several location scouting trips, but I just wasn’t getting what I wanted. Finally, I had the idea.. What if Cinderella didn’t have a fairy godmother? Even further, what if she’s a girl with attitude and mechanical smarts, and she doesn’t even need a fairy godmother, she can put her brains into it and get her own self to that ball! I immediately shifted gears (hah hah, pun) towards a steampunk Cinderella, which was very interesting to build and shoot since it’s so far away from what I normally photograph. Since I can’t sew, I had to take a dress I already owned and modify it. So, it came out less steam and punk and more princessey, but I still feel like this shows how she got herself to that ball!

Here is the list of all the participants, go visit the others and see what else they did!
Marie Asbury – Sioux Falls, SD – finishedvision.com
Aseel Aziz-Gomez – Lexington, KY – zoombugphotos.com
Monique Duke – Albuquerque, NM – moniqueduke.com
Lori Fowlkes – Fredericksburg, VA – lorielizabethphotography.com
Lauren Harms – Boise, ID – shadylanestudios.com
Jessica Holden – Sunnyvale, CA – jessicaholdenphotography.com
Heather Lickliter Larkin – Athens, GA – fairyography.com