Fallen Princesses

Thanks to the fantasticness of social media and what not, I came across a really interesting article featuring a photographer to the name of Dina Goldstein. The story focused on her latest series named "Fallen Princesses".

(I highly suggest you read the article here before continuing reading my post.)

Essentially, Ms. Goldstein took the lives of arguably the most well known females of all time (the Disney Princesses) and captured their real world fate. I have to say this is probably one of the most interesting photographer's series I have yet to come across in my short life span in photography. I enjoy that the article has the photographer's comments below each picture because as much as I hate to admit it, I didn't "get" some of the pictures right away. Although once I read her reasoning behind each photograph I couldn't help but to think how genius they were.

One of my favorites has to be Ariel's. For those who didn't have the time to read the article, she was put in an aquarium and a little boy is gazing upon her from in front of the glass. Ms. Goldstein's comment was about how our society is fixated on beauty. We tend to capture things that are unique and extraordinary and keep them for our own pleasure and entertainment, and I couldn't agree more.

Another one that hit hard was Belle's photograph. For anyone who needs a refresher, Belle was especially noted for her beauty in her story. In her photo she has aged and is faced with the choice of whether to accept her new beauty or use modern day interventions to bring herself back to her original looks and she chooses the latter. It's a story that should even speak to the younger generation; self-image is a dangerous thing.

I'm trying so hard not to talk about every picture she shot, so I'll conclude my review with Rapunzel's picture. This princess is easily notable for her hair which is the center of her fairy book story. In her modern world fate she is faced with a harsh battle fought by numerous people -cancer- which results in the loss of her beloved hair. It's a degrading side effect for many women whether they have long blonde locks or not and the picture speaks so much.

The article mentions that the series was shot on a budget of practically nothing which kind of makes me appreciate the photos a little more. Also I noticed on another article that I read about the series that many people had an issue with Princess Jasmine's picture as they thought it implied a racist meaning, although in her defense this article didn't explain the meaning of each picture like the one I linked you all to, and some people's minds think up crazy things when they're left to their own devices if you know what I mean. I could play devil's advocate as I do see where their racists comments could be stemmed, but her choosing for Jasmine to be fighting in the battlefield wasn't for stereotypical purposes, but because this was a reasonable outcome for Jasmine's personality. She's very rebellious and strong willed therefore it makes sense that she would be the type of woman to go off and defend her country. This is just my opinion and if yours differs, I'd love to know.

All I have to say is kudos to your Ms. Goldstein, kudos to you.

Oh and have a fabulous day.