A CHILD'S FAIRYTALE TWISTED IN TWO TALES photographs and story by: BENG
“And They Lived — Happily Ever After.” CONTENTS — Snow White
a tale of the lavishing beauty who was once kind and selfless.
Sleeping Beauty a twisted fantasy on the princess who couldn’t fall asleep anymore.
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“Happy endings are stories that haven’t ended yet” – Jane Smith In our childhood, I believe most of us were subjected to a slew of fairytales when we were growing up. Traditional fairytales are told time and time again to us where everything is repetitive as the storylines are always the same. For instance if we were to read a bunch of books on “Little Red Riding Hood”, the storyline would pretty much be the same and everything that happens after the wolf’s death would be summarized in a simple “Happily Ever After” and you’ll never get to find out what happens to Little Red Riding Hood after she returns to her parents. Fairytales often paint a portrait of fantasies and dreams where good prevails. Most of the time fairytales end with the accustomed phrase — “Happily Ever After”, which lets the reader to believe that everything remains stagnant after the last scene. But what does those three words actually mean? Is everything really what we expect it to be? Is everything always good and merry? Hence, the Happily Ever After project challenges the idea of a continuation of the story that is being left off, where sometimes what we expect to happen may not be what actually takes place. With an intention of creating a fashion story to portray different fairy tales, the photographs aims to take the public on a journey to find out what happens after the last page of the storybook is flipped. So we ask ourselves — are things truly as predictable as they seem?
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MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL, WHO WAS ONCE THE FAIREST AND KINDEST OF THEM ALL? A PRINCESS WHO IS WHITE AS SNOW AND A CHANGE OF HEART MADE HER HEART DARK AS COAL
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Upon waking up from the cursed apple with the help of prince charming, Snow White was celebrated and treated like the town's own heroine for her triumph over the evil queen. Everyone loved and admired Snow White for her kindness and beauty. As beautiful as she was, little did they know their honeyed words and flattery ignited something inside beyond her white facade that was darker than anything they had ever seen.
SNOW WHITE REVELED IN
EVERYONE'S FLATTERING WORDS FOR HER AND SLOWLY, EVERYONE BEGAN TO NOTICE THE CHANGES IN SNOW WHITE, IT WAS LIKE SHE HAD TAKEN OFF HER ROLE AS THE SELFLESS PRINCESS AND BECAME SOMEONE WHO LOVED NO ONE BUT HERSELF.
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Consumed in her own world and infatuated by her own beauty, deeper cracks started to show within herself that pushed Snow White away from the people who she loved and propelled her into isolation. She became forever discontent and envious of the beauty that surrounded her. Snow White herself would sometimes wonder what happened to the once caring person that she was and what was to blame for this change in character? It was as if this was a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from and she had been trapped in the shadow of the evil queen, losing not only the people that she loved but also something far more precious; she had lost who she truly was on the inside.
A S THE DAYS PAST, SNOW WHITE
BECAME THE PERSON WHO SHE SWORE THAT SHE WOULD NEVER BECOME, A CONCEITED PERSON WHOSE HEART WAS FILLED WITH ENVY FOR ANYONE WHO SHE THOUGHT WOULD OUTSHINE HER BEAUTY. SNOW WHITE HAVING LOST EVERYTHING SHE HAD AND EVERYTHING THAT SHE WAS, LIVED ALONE FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE, VOWING TO BE THE FAIREST OF THEM ALL.
THE KISS OF 'LIFE' LOST IN DEEP SLUMBER FOR A WHOLE CENTURY, LONGING FOR THAT ONE SPECIAL KISS, OUR BEAUTY EMERGES FROM HER SLEEP AND THE REAL STORY BEGINS.
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Wide awake was what Aurora was throughout the night of the wedding with Prince Charming. It was impossible for her to fall asleep and she thought it was the post-wedding jitters coming into play. Unbeknownst to her was that the cause of her insomnia was of something far more grave than what she had in mind. True love's kiss meant something far greater to Aurora than just waking her up from her curse. The kiss that woke her up from her deep sleep gave her so much life and energy that it was practically impossible for her to fall asleep ever again.
The search for the kingdom's best remedy and medication for insomnia begun. As reluctant as Aurora was, she was subjected to large amounts of pills everyday and what the 'Sleeping Beauty' soon realises was that, not only was she losing sleep, she was also losing something she held so dearly.
Aurora prayed for the day of change, but unfortunately the only change that Aurora had experienced was the change happening on her face that was stripping her beauty away from her day by day. Aurora now lays in her bed, known to her kingdom as the princess who was once ironically a Sleeping Beauty.
THE END
Photography and story by BENG Copywriting by BENG Editorial design by BENG SPECIAL THANKS Tuti Andrea Trishna Goklani Lena Lim Chow Chee Yong Please direct any equiries to feedbeng@gmail.com www.cargocollective.com/bengbengsiang
COPYRIGHT Š 2014 BY BENG All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means; electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without permission of the copyright holder. Please direct any equiries to feedbeng@gmail.com www.cargocollective.com/bengbengsiang