Photographing Fairytales...

Russian-based photographer Margarita Kareva's work comes straight from another world. A world inhabited by fairytale princesses and witches. Kareva finds her inspiration in fantasy books, and then combine Photoshop and real props to create magical photos. As she started to photograph only three years ago, I'm very impressed by her portfolio. Here are some of her lovely photos!

Source

Au-Contraire Photography

I just discovered one more of those photographers who's photos just draw me in and make me dream - wishing I was in one of those pictures... Her name is Melanie Plum, and the name of her studio is Au-Contraire Photography. She lives in Aachen, Germany, and she is self-taught. I don't really feel I need to say so much about these pictures. Just look, and dream away...

All photos are from Au-Contraire Photography's Facebook page.

Kirsty Mitchell

Born in 1976, Kirsty Mitchell worked as a fashion designer until 2007, when a illness caused a change in her - one that made her pick up a camera;

"I cannot explain how this happened, but a new, deep, and genuine need was born. I used to say I had never truly 'looked' until it was through a lens... life was different, more beautiful, more sad, and extreme in every sense of the word. People mattered, how they sat, how they slept, how they looked when they thought no one else cared. I fell in love with the faces of strangers, and photography gave me a new purpose..."

Then her mother was diagnosed with cancer, from which she later died. Kirsty used the camera to get through her loss, and she says photography became "an overwhelming passion that I could not stop." When she was little her mother had read many stories for her, and now she started to produce photos "that echoed the memories of her stories, and the belief in wonder I have always felt since a child".

I saw some of Kirsty's work a while ago, and since I too love stories and share her belief in wonders, I fell completely in love with her photos! This is what the world really looks like - if you look at it closely...

The following pictures are from the collection Wonderland:

Once Upon a Time

Wild Thing

The Queen's Armada

The Garden of Whispered Wishes

A Listless Dawn

Portrait of a Princess

An Ocean of Tales, till the Shores of Home

Gammelyn's Daughter

The Voyage

The White Witch

Lady of the Lake

Far, Far Away (part I)

The Box of Delights

The Distant Pull of Remembrance

The White Queen

A Most Beautiful Death

The Twilight Covenant and the Promise of Home

Moondial

To see the whole Wonderland collection, or look at other work by Kirsty Mitchell, you can find her web site here!