Everyone loves Disney stories. But how many of you ever wondered what happened after the fairy tale is over? What became of Snow White, Cinderella, Ariel, Belle, Jasmine, Red Riding Hood, Pocahontas, etc..? Indeed, life is not exactely like in fairy tales and artist Dina Goldstein’s Fallen Princesses series delivers an alternative point of view (cruel, surprising, horror, funny, bizarre?).
Dina Goldstein is a conceptual photographer with a background in editorial/documentary photography. For Dina photography is intended not to produce an esthetic that echoes current beauty standards, but to evoke and wrest feelings of shame, anger, shock and empathy from the observer so as to inspire insight into the human condition.
Fallen Princesses series was born out of deep personal pain, when she raged against the “happily ever after” motif we are spoon fed since childhood. The series created metaphor out of the myths of fairy tales, forcing the viewer to contemplate real life: failed dreams, pollution and ocean degradation, war, obesity, the extinction of indigenous cultures, cancer and the fallacy of chasing eternal youth. By embracing the textures and colors created by Walt Disney, which built a multi-billion dollar empire exploiting these fairy tales, Fallen Princesses exposed the consumerism that has negated the morality of these ancient parables. It also begged the question, “how do we define the concept of ‘good’ and how do we live a ‘good’ life?”
