Dina goldstein is based in vancouver, B.C.

Dina works in projects, rather than portraiture. She always takes pictures with links and i chose this project as it is one of my favourites.

The project is called “The Fallen Princesses”. She places fairy tale characters, the Princesses into modern day scenarios and problems. The princess is placed into a scenario that articulates her conflict.

The project was inspired by Dina’s observation’s on three year old girls, who were becoming increasingly obsessed with disney princesses.

These photographs are amazingly well thought out to contrast against the princesses stories. The photographs include alot of high contrast colours in order to make the Princesses seem bolder and the lighting is bright and picks detail in order to make our eyes instantly focus on the Princess in question.

These photographs are messages, they portray emotions and expressions. The pictures are not cluttered, and therefore do not dilute the message. Dina has captured the spirit of the subject and made these pictures able to evoke emotion.

Cinderella

In these photographs we are shown Cinderella. Cinderella’s story is well known as a typical “Rags To Riches” story. In these photographs we are shown how cinderella is just an average person, hailing a taxi and drinking in a bar. Her fairy godmother isn’t there to turn her pumpkin into a carriage, and she isn’t going to the ball.

In this picture Cinderella is hailing her cab. There is no specific lighting used, and as this is an outside shot, the grey sky and murky background of the traffic and buildings contrast against the beauty of the cinderella and her bright blue dress.

In This photograph we see cinderella drinking in the bar. The background is once again dark and dim, whereas there has been strong lighting used on Cinderella, to contrast against the other people in the bar and the background. Cinderella has been spotlighted, either on photoshop or from a high up light, to draw the attention to cinderella, but not so much that you do not take in the rest of the shot.

Snow White

In these photos we are shown Snow White with her prince charming, but she is not living with the seven dwarves like the disney original, but with four young children instead. Creating a metaphor of “dwarves”, comparing the dwarves to the small children, Dina has created a very realistic and everyday situation. The room has been lighted from behind the camera, as to light the whole room. The contrast has also been changed to make the colours bolder and brighter.

These two shots are taken with lighting flooding the two subjects (Snow White and Prince Charming) and highlighting their faces, snow whites cheeks and eyes. In the picture of the couple together, neither look happy, which creates a juxtaposition of the typical “Happy Ending”. The picture of Snow White on her own is more fairytale-like. She has adopted a typical Princess position and has been made to look glowing by the use of lighting and contrasting of colours.