A Brave Cosplay Take on "Brave" (Yup, That's A Real Bear!)

The internet has been wowed this last week (at time of writing) with Jessica Chastain's new Merida look (courtesy of Annie Leibovitz for Disney Parks) but before then there was a different Brave photoshoot, with a very different Merida (and a very brave model), and it's currently going viral in English speaking countries now that Chinese and Japanese cosplay sites have spread the word.

While it's a little difficult to see Pixar's Merida in these shots, they were inspired by the fairy tale movie. In fact the model is a Russian cosplayer named, Tina Rybakova, who invited/collaborated with Dasha Kond on this project. I'm sharing this shoot particularly because I noticed that there's a whole lot of fairy tale folk who ADORE the theme of women and bears in myth and fairy tales. It turns out too, that this photographer has a strong fairy tale sensibility in setting up her photos, particularly in showing animal-human connections.

The photos are from Moscow-based fashion photographer Dasha Kond, who often uses real animals in shoots, whether they are wolves, camels, horses, snakes, and more.

Russian photographer Dasha Kond* does a lot of work with trained animals (I can't find very much info at all on the animals sorry - I wish I could, to be sure they were being taken care of properly) but it's clear to see she has a strong sense of myth and story when she shoots people with animals in particular. Though all her photography is excellent, there's something special about how she shoots different species together, implying both have a story to tell.

I have fond SO MANY beautiful images I simply can't add them all here but below the jump is a collection of my favorites so far (I've run out of time trying to see every photo, there are so many!) You can see the 2 300, or so, more photos HERE.


In the meantime, jump on over and take a look at the other fairy tale-ish images. I included some that are most definitely fairy tale but without an animal but it's clear the magical human/animal connection is what inspires most of the photography.

Oh and yes, there are more 'girls and their bears' images too.
✒ ✒ Click the "Read more" link below for MANY more fairy tale like images with animals c/- Dash Kond ✒ ✒

Brothers Grimm's Homeland by Kilian Schönberger

Something a little different to inspire you in fairy tale territory today: photos from the actual lands the Grimm tales originated, or perhaps a better description would be "adopted home" since the origins for each of the tales aren't so easily pinned down.

This series of photos from Germany and surrounding areas are by talented landscape photographer Kilian Schönberger. He's clearly aware of the influences of these landscapes on the Grimm tales and, in turn, the influence of the tales on these places as well. He even titled this particular set of photos "Brothers Grimm's Homeland". Although they capture even more remote locations than are usually associated with various Grimm tales (along the, now popular, Fairy Tale Road) and lend themselves to the less populated and town centered stories, it's still easy to see how the fairy tales we know and love grew out of these places.

It's more than just dark tree trunks, a few mountains and heavy, lingering fog that makes for a fairy tale. Clearly this landscape has inspired stories for centuries. Perhaps the emphasis might have been more on danger then, rather than the magic we see today but the land distinctly inspires that as well.

It's also easy to see Mr. Schönberger has a deep love of forests. I don't know about you but I have sometimes found myself ins what seems to be a magical landscape, pulled out my camera and tried to capture that feeling of being there - with little success. My photos often feel flat and small compared to the atmosphere-filled places I took them unless the light is perfect (and I get super lucky). Schönberger, however, obviously has a talent for capturing images that come close to reflecting what it actually feels like to be in some places. The mystery, magic and foreboding are all here in every shot, as, it feels are any number of characters just outside the frame with stories that are both familiar and not.

Interestingly, Mr. Schönberger has a unique "magic" of his own. He is colorblind, something that is a challenge for a visual artist yet he manages to turn his "curse" into a blessing.

I think colour blindness (I can't distinguish green from red, magenta from grey, violet from blue and so on) can be an advantage especially in forest environments. I don't have to separate singular colours visually and can totally concentrate on the structure for a convincing image composition. Forests are always quite chaotic places - therefore I think the structures are more important for a pleasant result than the colours. (Schönberger from an interview with seamlessphoto)

While he does rely on feedback to make sure no colors within his shot disturb his composition, it would seem from his beautiful results that he's found a great way to work with his limitations and discover more in making his art than perhaps other photographers might.

As I was first putting together this post I initially wrote my impressions of tales that came to mind on viewing different images but realized the more I looked, the more tales resonated in my head, so I will let you see your own tales in each one instead. Perhaps you might even be inspired to tell your own.

Mr. Schönberger's main website  - with beautiful galleries of more magical places filled with tales and, conversely, landscapes fairy tales are full of - can be found HERE.

Recipe For Forests

"Recipe for Forests"

A while back I posted a lovely photography series in which the subject/model "interacted" with illustrations drawn in white. After finding that - and falling in love with the style and idea - it didn't take me long to track down "Recipe for Forests" which also has a strong fairy tale feel to it.

While the previous fairy tales were by one artists this series is by a trio, namely:

Carlos Gutiérrez (Photography) 

Sebastián Rubiano (Illustration) 

Juliana Mira Restrepo (Styling)

A rough translation of the Spanish text is included below the corresponding pics. 

(Edit FTNH: This image is my favorite of the set.)

An underground stirring reveals the dreamlike beginnings of this place.
If I close my eyes, I can see them too.

This crimson air feeds the senses, reviving the pleasure of falling into inescapable inner worlds.

It reads like the opening to a story, doesn't it? I wish they had written more and created/produced more photos for the series. I want to see more of this recipe.

You can find the set on Behance HERE, which links to all three artists own personal portfolios. 

The trio also collaborated on another forest fantasy project, titled Blur, which some readers may like as well, though it's darker and has no illustration. You can find it HERE. There's an interesting fantastical-dream story that goes with Blur, which , though a little wordy is an interesting read too. Just hit your auto-translate. Being somewhat poetic, a Google-translated approximation still makes enough sense to read and feels magical.

Here's one of the pics to give you a taste:

From Blur, also by Gutiérrez, Rubiano & Restrepo

I think these artists are still developing (some extra attenion to focus, a better quality lens and more control of the lighting would knock this out of the park!), but their potnetial, especially as a team, is high and I'd be curious to see some newer forest-based work, especially with a male central figure. We need more fairy tale images with males that aren't knights! Perhaps they'll be inspired in the new year...

If you like this as much as I do, please go to the Behance page and click the "appreciate this". Unlike Facebook, you don't need an account to click the button and the sole function is to let the artists know as simply and quickly as possible that people like -and appreciate- their work. Let's encourage them to do more in this vein!

Breaking News: Gans' "La Belle et la Bete" Trailer Released This Morning

Released exclusively to Premiere Magazine France first this morning, and now spreading like wildfire through the web, we can now see the seriously gorgeous trailer for Christophe Gans' newest movie La Belle et la Bete (full screen recommended!):

And here's Premiere's write-up below the trailer (auto-translated from French & kept intact as our power is about to go out for a few hours here!) with some added screencaps I quickly made this morning:

"Monsters movie should be beautiful creatures" stated Christophe Gans comment out the first pictures of Beauty and the Beast exclusively unveiled in the pages of First - and kept secret his vision of the Beast.  

The first trailer and it lets see the creature suggests that the filmmaker was keen to put this statement into practice.Worked in computer graphics from the expressions of Vincent Cassel , facial animation of the Beast was one of the main technical challenges of film Christophe Gans and seems to have been beautifully statement. Another splendor of these raw images, scenery, grand, first announced an aesthetic gem through visions and magical interpretation of Gans away from the confined atmosphere of Cocteau's film. 

We also know that the director of the  Brotherhood of the Wolf wanted to return to the original tale of Madame de Villeneuve, which gives greater emphasis to the context - the social status of a family - and therefore the father, played by André Dussollier, as well as 'behind the transformation of prince beast tracks barely sketched in versions of Cocteau and Disney. And in fact, the trailer highlights the father figure and shows Vincent Cassel without the mask monster, opening the field to explore the story of the lesser known public areas. 

The voiceover narration and the "Once Upon a Time" still remember we are on familiar ground and the film is all public wants. And the sequence of scenes where we see  Léa Seydoux move from fear to attraction emphasize especially that it is primarily a love story.Beauty and the Beast  will be in theaters February 12, 2014.

Wow. All the iconic scenes from the story appear to be present (I do love the reflection and Belle grabbing the knife!) and I can already see more of Villeneuve's story in there than we usually would, though with Gans' sensibilities and preference of course.

It's obviously family friendly (I'm not quite sure what I think of the little CG creature yet) and is very unlikely to have the raw sexual energy of Premiere Magazine's photoshoot with the two stars (see below) but it does seem as if it will stand among the best  - and most beautiful - Beauty and the Beast films to date.

I can't wait to see this!

Note: There appear to be some formatting issues today but since I'm about to go offline, I'm not going to keep trying to fix it.

Fairy tale bonus of the day:

Premiere Magazine also had a special photoshoot with Léa Seydoux and Vincent Cassel regarding their new film and the resulting images look a lot more Angela Carter than Cocteau!

Here they are:

Jennifer Hudson as Tiana by Annie Leibovitz

Just revealed about an hour ago, here's the latest pic in the celebrity Disney Dream Portrait campaign for Disney Parks: Jennifer Hudson as Tiana from The Princess and the Frog.

You can see a little from behind the scenes of the photoshoot below:

The image will be seen in issues of Vanity Fair, O – The Oprah Magazine, and People.

The Emperor's New Clothes Photo Series by Ted Sabarese

Note: Any pixelating was added for the purposes of this blog post ONLY. The only intention is to not have images on the blog that could be misconstrued as "adult" (and all the unpleasantness that comes with that if you attract the wrong sort of attention) while still being able to comment on, and reference, the images. It DOES, however, affect how this photography is viewed. I recommend you visit the artist's gallery HERE to see this series as it was meant to be seen.

We've seen many illustrations of this Hans Christian Andersen tale, many of them funny, but it's rare to see a photographic interpretation. Artist, photographer and director Ted Sabrese, who has done some very interesting projects, really did an amazing job of this series. Especially as it gets right to the heart of the story in just a glance.

I've had this bookmarked for a while, wondering how best to post on  the project to keep the blog "viewer friendly" and found a nifty little Photoshop tool to help me out. I have pixelated the images where there's nudity (or close enough) but DO recommend taking at look at the originals at the artist's Behance gallery HERE. Why? Not only were these subjects NOT meant to be covered in any way (as it defeats the purpose of the photos) but even the suggestion of doing so via pixelating, lessens the impact of these photos - a lot.

They're about exposure (doubly evident due to the medium!) and also about pride, and the original images put an interesting spin on that. Seeing different types of leaders and monarchs (un)dressed this way not only humanizes them but the lesson of their stubbornness instantly clear here. I actually think if the monarchs were completely nude, minus any undergarments or accessories, that it wouldn't impact us as much either, since we're so desensitized to different forms of nudity (at least in photography) these days.

The women in particular are interesting because they're neither sex objects, nor artful and appreciated nudes. While they're funny to us looking on, they're not at all funny to the exposed character. They're not being exhibitionists either, they're just trapped in their pride so it's a very interesting twist on how we usually see the undressed form.

It's so clear, that despite initially being swindled, these rulers aren't in a gullible state at this point, they're stubbornly prideful. And defensive. (Check the body language!)

It's also a very unique way of thinking about the fairy tale that I haven't seen tackled elsewhere (tackled - oh dear! lol). In these images it's very clear that if you were to take away their scepters, crowns and other accessories of station they would, indeed be bereft of any tokens of psychological armor and be mortified.

One of the great things about excellent art is that is makes us think of familiar things in a fresh way. Mr. Sabrese has a unique way of seeing people's "armor" and exposing it for what it is: take a look at his Hunger Pains, The Emoticon Project or Office Wear and you'll see what I mean. (And while you're there, click "appreciate this" to let him know we are very glad he is sharing his art and point of view.)

LX Magazine's Tribute to 200th Anniversary of Grimms Household Tales - Dornröschen (Tale 5 of 5)

"Sleeping Beauty" Photography Viona lelegems, Model Jolien Rosanne, Post-production Chester Van Bommel

The fifth and final tale from the 200th Anniversary Grimm's Household Tales Tribute by Lx Magazine: Illuminating Luxury. I hope you've enjoyed our little weekly fairy tale luxury postings! There is so much to mine from the 2012 200th anniversary celebrations. I'm glad this was one of them. Beautiful in every way.

- FTNH aka Fairy Tale News Hound aka Gypsy

Dornröschen - Little Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty

“After many, many years there came another king’s son into that land, and an old man told him the story of the thicket of thorns, and how a beautiful palace stood behind it, in which was a wondrous princess, called Briar Rose, asleep with all her court. He told, too, how he had heard from his grandfather that many, many princes had come, and had tried to break through the thicket, but had stuck fast and died. Then the young prince said, ‘All this shall not frighten me; I will go and see Briar Rose.’ The old man tried to dissuade him, but he persisted in going.
Now that very day the hundred years were completed; and as the prince came to the thicket he saw nothing but beautiful flowering shrubs, through which he passed with ease, and they closed after him as firm as ever. Then he came at last to the palace, and there in the yard lay the dogs asleep, and the horses in the stables, and on the roof sat the pigeons fast asleep with their heads under their wings; and when he came into the palace, the flies slept on the walls, and the cook in the kitchen was still holding up her hand as if she would beat the boy, and the maid sat with a black fowl in her hand ready to be plucked.
Then he went on still further, and all was so still that he could hear every breath he drew; till at last he came to the old tower and opened the door of the little room in which Briar Rose was, and there she lay fast asleep, and looked so beautiful that he could not take his eyes off, and he stooped down and gave her a kiss. But the moment he kissed her she opened her eyes and awoke, and smiled upon him.
Then they went out together, and presently the king and queen also awoke, and all the court, and they gazed on each other with great wonder. And the horses got up and shook themselves, and the dogs jumped about and barked; the pigeons took their heads from under their wings, and looked about and flew into the fields; the flies on the walls buzzed away; the fire in the kitchen blazed up and cooked the dinner, and the roast meat turned round again; the cook gave the boy the box on his ear so that he cried out, and the maid went on plucking the fowl.
And then was the wedding of the prince and Briar Rose celebrated, and they lived happily together all their lives.”

You can read the full tale as published by Grimms Household Tales HERE (translated to English) and learn much more about Sleeping Beauty's history HERE.

Thus is the end of our tribute tale from Lx Magazine. We are so grateful they shared their fairy tales with us.

(Links below to all posts in this tribute series should now be live!)

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LX Magazine's Tribute to 200th Anniversary of Grimms Household Tales - Rumpelstilzchen (Tale 4 of 5)

"Rumpelstiltskin" An artwork piece by Mandy Smith (mandysmithwork.com) Dress created in baking paper and the wheel cardboard. Room and props all designed, created and painted by hand. Photography Leon Hendrickx, Model Dorothy Bany, MakeupArtist Anita Jolles

Tale four from the 200th Anniversary Grimm's Household Tales Tribute by Lx Magazine: Illuminating Luxury. Take special note of the caption and credit above! A dress made from baking paper! Gold from straw, I mean, paper!! Beautiful work and shows you that if you put your mind to it, the magic will come... Enjoy.

- FTNH aka Fairy Tale News Hound aka Gypsy

Rumpelstilzchen - Rumpelstiltskin

“There was once a poor Miller who had a beautiful daughter, and one day, having to go to speak with the King, he said, in order to make himself appear of consequence, that he had a daughter who could spin straw into gold. The King was very fond of gold, and thought to himself, ‘That is an art which would please me very well;’ and so he said to the Miller, ‘If your daughter is so very clever, bring her to the castle in the morning, and I will put her to the proof.’ ”

You can read the full tale as published in Grimms Household Tales HERE (translated to English) and learn much more about Rumpelstiltskin's history HERE.

The final tale text and photo will be posted next week!

(Links below to all posts in this series will be updated as posts go live.)

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*** TALE 1 *** TALE 2 *** TALE 3 *** TALE 4 *** TALE 5 ***