It’s been almost a year since I photographed this self-portrait editorial in France. I cannot quite place a finger on how the idea came to me. It must have been a combination of things like the dress, and the romantic roses that snaked the house, or the little garden in the backyard. They all reminded me of fairytales as France generally does.
I had just arrived for a wedding. I was thrilled to be back, but most excited to attend my first French wedding and see my little sister walk down the aisle!
Thoughts of what a French wedding would look and feel like roamed through my mind every day as I awaited the wedding day. Still, I avoided reading anything about what to expect because I wanted to be surprised. The whole family was somewhere in the southwest of France while I, by myself, in this little house, miles and miles away, entertained myself with imaginations of stories after stories.
Days before I left for the wedding, I drew up my own fairytale-inspired by my childhood favorites. Admittedly, I built the idea as the shots went on. It started with one small fairytale idea – one thing inspired the other and it grew on like the creeping plants on the wall. Even without a tripod to shoot myself, I was piling books in the grass and creating little makeshift tripods with whatever I could find.
It is an amazing thing when inspiration finds you.
I fell in love with storytelling because of the folktales and fairytales I grew up listening to and reading. I would come up with my own stories in my head – most of the time it would be a sequence to the fairytale I just read because I clearly couldn’t get enough. Sometimes, I’d write it down as a story, draw it as a comic strip, or act it out with my friends during recess. Today, I am blessed to find yet another way to tell my stories— photography.
As for the wedding itself, it was a real-life fairytale!!! I mean they had it in a real French castle! – by far the most beautiful wedding I have attended.
Here’s to happily ever after
Self – Portrait Fashion Shoot. Shot in France, May 2019 by Armenyl