Anna Gaskell: Fairy Tales and Photography

Sticking with the theme of fairy tales and photography, I immediately thought of photographer Anna Gaskell and I thought it would be interesting to highlight some of her work.

Anna Gaskell's two series based loosely off of Alice in Wonderland—wonder (1996–97) and override (1997)—load complex fairy tale narratives into single frames. The images are obviously a staged "reality" with no beginning or end so the viewer is left to fill in the blanks. I think Anna Gaskell's work offers great new possibilities for how the story goes. In the fairy tales, everyone has a happy ending—but what if the ending didn't turn out to be a happy one? The sharp angles, the harsh cropping, and the strange, even eerie sense of playfulness are evidence of her experimentation with this collapsing distinction between "happily ever after" fiction and a more complex reality.

 

Anna Gaskell, untitled #6 (wonder), 1996

Anna Gaskell, untitled #8 (wonder), 1996

 

Anna Gaskell, untitled #25 (override), 1997



Anna Gaskell, untitled #5 (wonder), 1996

You've Gotta Update Your Fairy Tale, Baby

Last night I watched the funny rom-com Friends with Benefits. Your standard boy meets girl and they fall in love but don't realize it until a grand-gesture-at-the-end kind of a movie. I laughed, I cried, and shockingly, I was inspired (yes inspired by a cheesy rom-com!)

Jamie (Mila Kunis) is hooked on the idea of the classic fairy tale. She wants Prince Charming to come in and sweep her off her feet. But her mom tells her: "That's not who you want. I mean, you're looking for a man to be your partner. Someone you can take on the world with. You've gotta update your fairy tale, baby." Love it!

In light of this rom-com inspiration, I remembered a project I worked on last year. OK so it wouldn't be super great if the updated version of Snow White turned out to be a depressed addict but these images are evidence that life doesn't have just one formulaic, storybook ending; that things change; and that sometimes the unexpected can make life a little more interesting.