Within this project, I intend to consider the Narrative side of photography when assembling my project exploring the photographic technique of Tableau Vivant and how I can use that to represent or retell a story/fable. After researching different myths, legends and folktale, I was introduced to the Grimm Brothers. I decided to communicate ‘Little Briar Rose’ which is a folktale written and adapted by the brothers. This is the original story of the well-known ‘Sleeping Beauty’ film created by Walt Disney. Because this tale has been around for centuries and many authors/directors have taken the story and recreated their own interpretations of it, it seemed like the perfect fairy tale to research. The fact that some of these interpretations contrast with each other so well gave me a sense of freedom to decide the atmosphere I wanted to create around my image and the type of tale I wanted to create for my audience.
Experimenting with the technique, I wanted to see if I could plant imagery into the photograph to manipulate peoples expectations to include the dark and gruesome imagery that is included in the Grimms brothers version of the story. I wanted to create the opposite effect that Walt Disney’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ portrays and have a more realistic style. This idea was heavily influenced by Photographers such as, Gregory Crewdson and Jeff Wall who both produce numbers of Tableaux themselves. Crewdson’s work is almost what i hope to create as when fabricating his series’ of work, he also creates his own fantasy world and situations to photograph. seeing this creativity made me want to create my own scene of ‘Little Briar Rose’, telling the entire story through one image. I intend to create my own background and props, allowing me to almost ere t my own scene which i can position my props and actors in to create the perfect scene. The main purpose of my Tableau will be to essentially create my own fantasy world with an atmosphere of torment and tension I will almost be manipulating ‘Sleeping Beauty’ into my own horror story. I think that combining the aspect of horror alongside the innocence the popular Disney film would challenge and compare the realism in children’s films with the harsh reality of the world we live in, almost taking the tale back to its original dark underlying tone . As I understand it, the freedom of my project allows me to develop my own sense of style in photographs and explore what its like to build your own set up, instead of trying to find the right setting ti take the photograph in. This project idea interests me because I have often wondered where these stories come from and why Disney films, for example, are always so happy and innocent when true events in stories are not. This brings me back to the question of how big or effective the distance between fantasy and reality is and how far you can push the boundaries to create a realistic but completely un passable photograph.
