Fairy Tales Photography

[Marine Farinha]

Eachof their pieces is completely unique and has its own personality, back story, and theme. An incredible amount of effort goes into the creation of each character, their outfit, mask, and pet. When you combine this with the breathtakingly stark shooting locations in each photograph it adds a whole new level of depth and meaning. The duo then creates a story behind each picture, tying them into themed collections that transport the viewer to a dark surreal reality, half in this world and half in a fantasy world.

While I could try to tell you more about their work, I feel that the artists would be able to do a far better job explaining it themselves. I took a chance and reached out to Mothmeister to see if they would be interested in answering a few questions. Not only were they interested but their willingness to contribute and the depth of detail in their answers was truly humbling and insipiring.

As our characters are morphing non-stop we wanted our alter ego to embody this endless metamorphosis. When it comes to animals, moths undergo drastic changes throughout their life-cycle so we thought that would fit our creative dna like a glove. Moths are also the unloved night version of butterflies.

Basically Mothmeister is a two-headed alter ego. We do everything ourselves: styling, modelling and shooting. On top of that we praise ourselves lucky to be inspired by a truly exciting range of artists from all over the world that are happy to collaborate with us. Costume designers, masks sculptors, taxidermists, headpiece designers, music bands, you name it. Their magic is like oxygen to a fire.

How did you get into the world of photography and design?

We guess it all started with our childhood dreams and the dark fairytales that we were told as kids. Many years ago we started collecting taxidermy, costumes, masks and other curiosa. The universe of Mothmeister turned out to be the perfect fictional realm where all these things from the past came together in a rather spontaneous way. Even though all our characters look different, they all belong to this same quirky and distorted family. They all flirt with the darker and macaber things in life.

We do feel connected to both the character and animal. The characters as such mirror our psyche. They will never face the camera. But rather look humble. Introvert. Not showing off. But in their own inner world or bubble so to say. They might look ugly, evil or grotesque, but they hide a lot of emotion.

Masks give you this carte blanche to be whoever you like. No matter how you feel inside. Masks can give you power. They express or even magnify one identity while hiding the real one which is pretty interesting. We always love to play with this juxtaposition.

But we are also die-hard thanatourists. Exploring places that are associated with death (cemeteries, cryptes), tragedy (war memorials, abandoned prisons, hospitals, etc.) or disasters (Chernobyl, Aral Sea) is very intoxicating. It triggers a bunch of things: our adrenaline rush, our lust for life, and last but not least, our inspiration. The masks we work with often are ghastly, grotesque and macabre. We love death masks, skulls and frantic sad clowns. We carefully pick the artists we work with. They share the same dark interest. In that sense, the masks reflect our inner side. Of course, taxidermy is also a way of portraying and celebrating death.

Order the book HERE

There are many underlying layers in each track that refer to pictures/places in our book. E.G: From the actual evacuation message from Chernobyl to the letter that cannibal Albert Fish wrote to the mother of one of his victims Grace Budd. DAAP did a stellar job.

I looked at many family albums in my childhood, too, asking my mom about all the people in the photos. I had the opportunity to read beautiful fairy tales with even more beautiful illustrations. I also delighted in fantasy movies.

Copyrights:

All the pictures in this post are copyrighted to Anna Fantazj. Their reproduction, even in part, is forbidden without the explicit approval of the rightful owners.

Pre-release, it had already been solidified in pop-culture history with content creators mimicking the ethereal style on social media. By the time of its release, my feed had already been flooded with dystopian elven imitations. It was lockdown 2020, fairy-core was thriving, providing escapism and a creative outlet. Users explored the darker sides of fairy life, entrapment, loneliness and survival. In 2021, the Fairy Tales photo teasers featured almost empty diners, bedrooms and hospitals; readers blending fact and fiction could imagine these scenarios coming to life in front of them.

Retelling childhood stories, Petra Collins and Alexa Demie play with juxtaposition: dark and light, violence and kindness, delicacy and tension. The soft focus and dreamy photography depict the truthful chaos and survival of mythical beings in a mortal world. The soft padding of the pillow-like book encases dark nightmares and escapist fantasies. Featuring illustrations by Evita Flores, deceivingly innocent, coloured-pencil drawings show butterflies in trees, witches and flying mice, a cottage in flames, and rope-wrapped mermaids accepting their fate.

This book is for lovers of dystopian tales, for anyone interested in modern interpretations of folklore, femxle representation and hyperfeminine aesthetics. I think this book is a great signifier of the zeitgeist and the challenges womxn face today, particularly on social media and image-based communications.

This year I will offer two different "Fairy Tale" scenes. The first one will be outside in the woods. This scene will feature woodland sprites dressed in gold, hunter green or burgundy gowns and wings darting through the woods among the toadstools looking for mischief. This scene will be September 18 & 19th by appointment only.

The second scene will be the traditional fairy scene in the studio magical forest. This is the most famous of the Storybook collections. I have only offered it twice since its introduction in 2008. It is a classic colorful scene in the indoor forest without the bugs!

Fairy Tales is the last Storybook scene of 2015. We will start up again in January 2016 with "Frozen Fever". You can join the Storybook Club anytime during the year and enjoy its benefits for an entire year. Club members get discounted session fees, discounted packages and a free sheet of wallets with each session. At the end of the year, you can purchase your own "Storybook" with your child's images to treasure forever.

Every child loves to play make believe. Why not let their imaginations soar with timeless portraits that will capture their childhood images in collectable art that you will cherish for years to come? You can't keep them small forever, but you can capture these moments in time with beautiful photography!

Bathed in a golden light, she looks out from a photo resembling a fashion magazine spread with a commanding stare, surrounded by massive teddy bears. Instead of yellow curly hair, she wears thick, afro-textured, honey blonde locs.

This is the Goldilocks of CROWNED: Magical Folk and Fairy Tales from the Diaspora by husband and wife photographers Kahran and Regis Bethencourt. The two have reimagined familiar stories with photographs of Black children and, occasionally, new plot points, in an elaborate book of 141 photos.

The book is broken down into three categories: Classic fairy tales, African and African American Folktales and original stories. The couple intentionally casts Black children of different ages, skin tones and hair textures in traditionally white roles, like Cinderella.

In the retelling of Cinderella, "Asha the Little Cinder Girl," Asha wears an extravagant blue gown with purple tulle shooting from the bottom as Jamal, her Prince Charming, slides on a white high-top sneaker instead of a glass slipper.

The Bethencourts began their photography careers in Atlanta in 2009. For a while, they worked in the children's fashion industry, capturing headshots for adolescent actors and shooting campaigns for kids' brands. But they noticed a specific and unsettling pattern among Black children in the industry.

"We realized that a lot of the kids that had natural Afro hair would come in to get their headshots and the parents would have their hair straightened because they thought that's what they needed to do to get their kids into the industry," Kahran said.

The two began doing personal projects where Black children were encouraged to wear their natural hair in fashionable settings. Staying connected to the industry helped them build enough clientele to create their own photography company, CreativeSoul.

CROWNED is a visual representation of the CreativeSoul original mission: celebrate and embrace natural Black beauty. But the book also showcases Regis and Kahran's ability to imagine and translate new worlds.

In CROWNED, Goldi is still a privileged girl, but she is welcomed into the bears' home. The bears don't have much, but they have each other, and a once-haughty Goldi leaves the house with three new friends and an appreciation for nurturing her relationships.

The husband and wife duo dress Aliyah, the little mermaid, in silver jewels and colorful pearls from head-to-toe. As she floats under the sea, she plays in her big red flowing hair filled with loose braids, shells, leaves and bright red tulle.

CROWNED by Kahran and Regis Bethencourt is a book designed to foster and encourage imagination, equipping young kings and queens with the creativity and ability to overcome any obstacles in their way.

Filled with stunning photography, these magical tales of the diaspora bring to life past, present, and future visions of Black culture to create a society where all kids are created equal and feel empowered to move in the world as their true authentic self.

Step into a scene filled with wonder and delight. Our captivating Fairytale Adventures photography experience features all things magical, including gentle sounds of an enchanted forest, lush greenery, and a reflection pond for children to peer in.

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