Cassie framing her shot for the setting
Two Friday’s ago I had the chance to work with one of my favorite student photographers as an Assistant/ Document-er. Cassie is one of the most creative people I know. She is constantly twisting and manipulating her photos into a constructed reality, that somehow still seems plausible if not pretty close to actual reality .They are ironic in their nature and make “us“ 90’s kids reminiscent of what pulled us into Disney movies as children, but with an adult attitude.Set in the woods down a snowy trail, we had just enough sun to light the scene beautifully.
Propping Properly for a fairy tale
She calls her work a form of satire story –telling, I could not agree more. I find her work to be truth telling in an emotional way. In her images I see self-truths and truths of others. Dealing with an adult reality is anything but glamorous, and it seems there is not fairy dust powerful enough to make us forget that. There is real life embedded in these silly images of princesses gone wrong. Replacing happy endings with ones seen and unseen, but likely if fairy tales existed in our world.
On this particular shoot we were working with the fairy tale red riding hood, In this version…Red has murdered the huntsman. There she is looking pretty bad ass in the snow while the huntsman lays in a pool of his own blood. Who knows if he was really the wolf, stalking her in the woods.IF you want to see this image?, be sure to check out Cassie’s Photo-blog
http://nolancf.wordpress.com/
Cassie is so cute when she is shooting, I catch myself making silly noises when I get the shot I wanted, Or when my vision is coming to life. Cassie is a giggler, If you know her well enough sometimes it’s almost an girly evil laugh, You can see her rearranging the elements in a photo she took in her head.
Cassie is also highly motivated; She researches, conceptualizes and shoots. If she fails to get what she was looking the first time around, she moves on until the timing is right. She is good at planning every single detail of he shoots, making sure every detail is in the right place and every light is just enough.
When I photograph someone doing something they love, it inspires me to shoot more and work harder. I love photographing real life, Cassie is so REAL. No Apologies and no remorse for who she is and how she expresses herself. I have even modeled for her a time or two, once for this fallen fairy tale series! I am depicted as Snow white, and I have seven babies, instead of dwarfs .
When I see this kind of work I see how the world has changed, I can laugh at my own mistakes as well as related to how my ending could have been, I am empowered as a woman by Cassie’s work, to live my life without the bounds of stereo types. Without falling into a fairy tale that is not right for me.
James on the set assisting with lighting.
I feel I get to know people better through my own photographs, seeing another photographer so dedicated in telling storied really inspires me to get out there an photograph what really matters to me.
thanks ma'am! <3 you!
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