Breaking the myth

breaking the myth Fa ll e n P r i n ce s s

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very now and then we start to get lost in a fantasy world of our own creation and we come to believe in its fleeting reality - Just like those Disney movies and fairy-tale books we were so fond of as children. But, soon after reality hits us and we wake up to those bills, which still haven’t been paid and that fridge which needs to be restocked and that business proposal which is due next week. This harsh, yet realistic view of life is what inspired the photographer Dina Goldstein to create her photo series ‘Fallen Princesses’.

Dina shot ‘Fallen Princesses’ in 2007 after her mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer. In contrast, it was around this time that her 3-year old daughter was exposed to Disney and its promises of ‘happily ever after’. Dina soon came to the realization that these Disney princesses weren’t really privy to real-life issues such as cancer, addiction and war. “Ultimately there was a happily ever after and besides we really never followed their life past their youth” Dina quotes.

Dina Goldstein is a visual artist from Vancouver, Canada. Her work in editorial and documentary style photography is known for its connections to pop surrealism. She is famous for creating tableaus with a nuanced visual language that place the mundane and every-day against unusual scenarios to bring attention and inspire insight into the human condition.

Brothers Grimm and Hans Andersen were the real authors of these Disney fairy-tales. These original versions were a lot darker, sometimes gruesome and hardly ever contained happy endings.

While reading through these, Dina began to imagine what would happen if these perfect princesses were thrown into real-life issues that were affecting the woman around her – addiction, illness, selfloathing.

Dina defines her style of photography to be ‘Pop Surrealism’.

She goes on to explain, saying “Surrealism mines dream and the unconscious, while popular culture is concerned with surface and common places.” This art of Surrealism has a sense of humor, which isn’t always colorful and joyful. Dina also believes that photography is an art form that transcends cultural borders and holds the quality of quick communication. Her work analyses the human condition, interpreting new and clichéd notions of beauty, gender, sex and religion through the lens of pop culture. Most of her initial ideas are instinctual, and inspired from the subconscious. This theme becomes evident in her most celebrated series ‘Fallen Princesses’.

On being asked about her decision to negate the ‘happily-ever after’ concept in these stories she responds by saying - “Fairy Tales were originally written as parables, Disney created the ‘happilyever’ after motif. I don’t want to send out a negative message just a realistic one. Most people have to deal with difficult issues sometime in their lives and no one is exempt.”

This is a ten-photograph series, which uses a bright color palette to depict grown women dressed as fairytale heroines portrayed in ordinary, modern-day scenarios.

Text by Sumedha C.S

In the photograph ‘Belle’, a woman wearing the golden ball gown of Disney’s ‘Beauty and the Beast’ franchise is undergoing plastic surgery. In ‘Beauty’ the Prince from ‘Sleeping Beauty’ rests on the bed besides his still youthful but comatose bride. Fairy-tales regularly address adolescent girlhood and early marriage and thus create an obsession with staying young. But what they don’t show is that this results in a fast burnout, leading to a frightening lack of self-esteem.

Another picture challenging dominant ideologies is Jasmine which features the princess Jasmine holding an M-16 machine gun on a battlefield with tanks, helicopters and explosions in the background. Jasmine is decked up in grenades, ammunition and purple camouflage with chiffon sleeves. This image challenges traditional racial and gender stereotypes. Jasmine is not only a female soldier – But a Middle-Eastern one at that. She is presented

through a lens of exaggerated femininity with long, messy hair and an ample cleavage sporting jewels. This image in particular has invited a lot of criticism. People feel that the image contains racial undertones considering how the woman portrayed on a battlefield is of Arabian ethnicity.

But, perhaps the darkest image of the entire series is the one of Rapunzel. The photo features Rapunzel sitting on a hospital bed receiving chemotherapy with her long blonde wig in a braid, draped across the bed onto her lap, falling across the floor. ‘Rapunzel’ was clearly born out of the experience of living in contrasting worlds – that of Dina’s mother’s cancer and her daughters’ love of fantasy.

But, the point Dina was trying to convey through this image was not clearly understood by viewers. They interpreted the photo as a cruel joke and were of the opinion that cancer is too serious a topic to be treated so lightly. They failed to recognise that what Goldstein made could be taken as art and art, as a medium is sometimes meant to be risky and controversial. In actuality most women fear of losing their hair to chemotherapy. But, the fact that Rapunzel is still portrayed as beautiful is a message that all women going through such treatments need to know that they don’t need their natural hair to feel beautiful.

Fantasy, is a beautiful place to get lost in for a few, fleeting moments, but true beauty lies in experiencing hardship and struggles and fighting through them with grace and humility to come out stronger on the other side. Dana’s series showcases this, and even with the criticism she’s received for at times being too literal, and at times being unaware of small sensibilities – she has done a fantastic job of capturing the true, gritty essence of contemporary life.

“My main message is that this world is so complex and everyone has his or her own challenges to deal with. What might seem ‘perfect’ on the outside is most likely not.”

Dina GoldsteiN

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‘Snowy’ is the first image in the series and portrays the life of popular Disney princess – Snow white. She is still married to prince charming; who (legend has it) saved her from deep sleep by kissing her. But, instead of having a blissful, perfect marriage she is shown to be an overburdened housewife. Still wearing her iconic gown from the Disney movie, she now sports a short-bob.

She stares into the camera dispassionately with a baby in each arm, a toddler tugging on her skirt and a fourth child crawling in the background. Prince Charming is slumped, lazily on an armchair with his feet up on a stool and a beer in his hand, watching TV. In this story, Snow White is represented in middle/lower middle class settings where she is not only solely responsible for chcare but also completely overwhelmed by it. This image instigates many questions about dominant and traditional notions of gender roles in marriage.

An alcoholic Cinderella all alone at a bar. - Cinderella Photographed by Dina Goldstein

Proving societal standards wrong by looking beautiful even with no hair and innocence in the eyes. - Rapunzel Photographed by Dina Goldstein