Fairytales: Petra Collins and Alexa Demie

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The way that I learned everything in art was through collaboration. So whenever I have a subject, I approach it as a really exciting collaboration…I’m like, ‘What do you want to feel like? Or what do you want to possess? What image do you want to put out?’” she says, adding: “I think the whole thing with shooting subjects, celebrities, and talent is that you really want their input. And then you also want to bring something new to them too.” For Collins, "Fairy Tales" also speaks to the ways in which our online lives have changed us. "(We're) presenting these false...fairy-tale versions of ourselves," she said. Petra Collins/Rizzoli

Fairy Tales is] acollaboration with the photographer Petra Collins -- a body of work that reimagines the female creatures who inhabit folk- and fairy-tales, who are often cast as one-dimensional monsters or temptresses. Their recent photo book "Fairy Tales" features Demie as nine different personas, including a faerie, siren, banshee and water sprite, as well as Hungarian legends like Tűz Anya (meaning'fire mother') that Collins grew up with. It explores the femininity and sexuality of mythological beings, but in the context of very human spaces, such as teenage bedrooms, medical facilities, parking lots and exotic dancing clubs."—CNN Below, Collins gives five recommendations for coming-of-age and romantic tales tinged with fantastical elements. For both Collins and Demie, fairy-tales offered a place of refuge when they were younger. “We started talking about fairy-tales and folktales, and what it meant for us,” Collins said in a phone interview. “Because both of us came from very chaotic households…So any type of imaginary realm that I could get into I would, and that’s sort of where I lived.”

Aesthetically, Collins’ images have been variously but consistently described as dream-like and feminine, making her fixation on fantasy — and the fever dream that is girlhood — fitting. But in a bit of a plot twist, she says she’s long been inspired by coming-of-age, body horror movies, like The Exorcistand Carrie.She also loves the work of fellow Canadian David Cronenberg.

But “Fairy Tales” is also Collins’ interpretation of how our virtual lives have rapidly evolved during the pandemic, she explained, calling the digital space a “mythical reality” where many have become fixated on how they present themselves and facial-altering image filters have flourished.Throughout the series, the personas each contend with a conflicted sense of self, recalling the film portraits that made Collins a defining voice of girlhood in the 2010s, as well as her recent music videos for pop star Olivia Rodrigo. The latter character is labeled in the book as a “viz tunder”—the Hungarian name for this particular kind of sprite. Collins was raised on a diet of Hungarian folktales: stories that she describes as “super psychedelic, so sexual, and violent.” She points to one tale in which a girl trades her body for goats, then raises her skirt to reveal a blinding light as a euphemism for her vagina. “This is seared into my memory, and I didn’t realize it was such a big reference until years and years later,” Collins says.

I don’t think either of us has ever been comfortable in her immediate reality. Most of our childhoods were spent escaping in our minds,” Collins and Demie write in the prologue. As children, fairy tales played an important part for both of the women, allowing them escape from the dread of their own realities. The nine, nonlinear stories in “Fairy Tales” stem as much from their imaginations, as their traumas and the tales they told themselves.

2018

Each of the nine tales are set in unique spaces, ranging from suburban homes and parking lots to fantastical sets. Petra and Alexa’s chapters of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, fairies, witches, and banshees blend their own stories with retold fairy tales. The photos combine elements of camp, prosthetics, and shibari in a surreal update to the imagery of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, and others. 2020 Miért vagy te, ha lehetsz én is? Fairy Tales is] acollaboration with the photographer Petra Collins — a body of work that reimagines the female creatures who inhabit folk- and fairy-tales, who are often cast as one-dimensional monsters or temptresses. Their recent photo book "Fairy Tales" features Demie as nine different personas, including a faerie, siren, banshee and water sprite, as well as Hungarian legends like Tűz Anya (meaning'fire mother') that Collins grew up with. It explores the femininity and sexuality of mythological beings, but in the context of very human spaces, such as teenage bedrooms, medical facilities, parking lots and exotic dancing clubs."—CNN Since the early 2010s, Petra Collins has redefined the scene of photography and film with her ethereal, pastel-saturated visuals. Directing campaigns for high fashion brands such as Gucci and Bulgari, music videos for pop artists Olivia Rodrigo and Carly Rae Jepsen, and developing her first feature film (“ Spiral” starring Selena Gomez), Collins’ work has been publicly recognized in nearly every corner of the entertainment industry. Collins calls this novel about a woman who rebounds from a relationship with a merman one of her “favorite books ever.” She explained: “It is a beautiful depiction of addiction, mental health, love and loss – all told through the lens of a woman in love with a merman.” Each of the nine tales are set in unique spaces, ranging from suburban homes and parking lots to fantastical sets. Petra and Alexa’s chapters of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, fairies, witches, and banshees blend their own stories with retold fairy tales. The photos combine elements of camp, prosthetics, and shibari in a surreal update to the imagery of the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Anderson, Charles Perrault, and others.