Kirsty Mitchell’s World of Fairytale Queens

Out of tragedy came inspiration for photographer Kirsty Mitchell. After her mother passed away, she used her passion for photography as a way to escape and found herself knee-deep into a project solely dedicated to the memories of her mother. Inspired by the story book images her mother read to her as a child, she stated, “I decided this was how I wanted her to be remembered, to create something that would celebrate her gift to others – magical worlds full of color and endless possibility.” In collaboration with hair and makeup artist Elbie Van Eeden along with her background in fashion and costume design, came the most supernatural series of photographs. Her characters are based on dreams she’s had  and the everything else came from memories of book illustrations, poems, paintings, and fairytale queens. The woodland areas around her house in England became the ideal setting and she often worked with a skeleton crew of four or less so as not to disturb and trample the natural order of things. She relied on nature to dictate her work and in some cases, waited a whole year for the right flowers to bloom in order to capture the right shot at the perfect moment.