Kings, queens and fairy tales – a photographic ‘conversation piece’

As a recipient of the 2016 Hasselblad Masters Award, I was commissioned to make a body of images relating to the theme ‘inspire’ for the Hasselblad Masters publication. The images were initially inspired by the tradition of the painted wedding portrait in western art history. kings, queens and fairy tales approach the subject of the marriage union in terms of childhood inspiration and fantasy. For instance the fairy tale notion of growing up to marry a prince, combined with points in photographic history, (the Cottingly fairies) and historic tragedy, (Oscar Wilde’s fairy tales). These tableau/still-life/model shots of idealised cottages/houses and churches that play with scale as a metaphor for inspiration, are contrasted with a real-life locations that emphasise an almost child-like perspective of what a church, house or fairy tale castle might look like. The book was launched and images were exhibited at Photokina - Cologne in September 2016