princess + light

Princess + Light

Helen K Williams | DSDN 144 | Project 3

Bill Henson

Further to my earlier blog: I eventually found a way to include a nod to Bill Henson

when I shot the images of my daughter that I used for this project. I don’t pretend to

know exactly how he extracts such beautiful images from his subject matter but I

attempted what I thought he might do (i.e. used a dark room and black backdrop with a

single direct light from the side) and the results were very useful for my final

project. The half dark faces allowed me to highlight the effects of the superimposed

princess make-up on my daughter’s baby face.

Figure 1: Untitled, Bill Henson, 200- 2010, Archival inkjet pigment

print, 127 180 cm, Tolarno Galleries, Melbourne

Cindy Sherman

I knew I would have to find a way to work my love for Cindy into one of my projects.

Since she is all about alter egos and donning masks it seems like her images, at times

funny and at times grotesque are like a bad-joke-gone-wrong which is exactly what I

hope to achieve with my project. I particularly like the way her images leave us

wondering ‘is this for real?’

Figure 1: Untitled, Cindy Sherman, 2000, The Artist and Metro

Pictures, New York

Dina Goldstein

Dina Goldstain is a contemporary photographer who specialises in photographing

elaborate scenes such as her well-known ‘Fallen Princesses’ series from 2007 which

depicts fairy tale princesses placed in modern day scenarios. The above image from her

Dollhouse series has been featured heavily online recently. Inspired by the questions

of her young daughters playing with their Barbie dolls she (again) plays with the ‘what

if’ concept to create a narrative about Barbie and Ken facing the breakdown of their

marriage. I have also been affected by the gradual understanding of my role as the

mother of a little girl as well as the consequences of parenting in the information

age. This awareness is what has informed my third project in photographics.

Figure 2: Bathroom, Dina Goldstein, 2012, http://inthedollhouse.net/

Light

Princesses

Ariel

Ariel

Belle

Belle

Cinderella

Cinderella

Pocahontas

Pocahontas