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| Disney Princesses Meet Their Doom in Thomas Czarnecki's New Photoseries |
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In today's edition of Things That Elicit Mixed Emotions, I present Thomas Czarnecki's photoseries "From Enchantment to Down". The haunting images depict Disney princesses meeting tragic ends. Ariel is beached on the shore, Sleeping Beauty lies abandoned on the floor of what appears to be a drug den, and Pocahontas is slung over a hunter's shoulder in his room of taxidermic trophies. I hope Czarnecki is making a statement about the impossible standards of femininity, the frailty of the notions presented in those Disney classics. If this is the case, I can almost bring myself to applaud his photographic work. Disney princesses famously uphold tropes of the infantilized female, the damsel in distress who relies entirely upon the benevolence of her Prince Charming. As this image that's making the rounds on the Internet shows, the statements Disney has made regarding what makes a woman valuable are controversial at best:
A critique of these ideals would be welcome. A statement along the lines of "Women can do anything, Disney! KAPOW! TAKE THAT!" would be too awesome to handle. A call for more diversity (ethnic, occupational, visual) is a message I can almost see in Czarnecki's series. However, what's so troubling about the artist's work is that his images rely on depictions of violence against women (yes, Disney princesses count as women, too). Their shoes are strewn, their faces obstructed from view, and they are ostensibly in some very tight spots. To further complicate my feelings about these photos, the cartoon ladies have been transformed into real female subjects, with violence mapped onto their three-dimensional bodies. Czarnecki seems to be attempting to push the envelope, but in my opinion, this is another example of the cultural tendency to romanticize the female as victim. According to his website, Czarnecki explores a "torture of bodies," but his previous photographs do not evoke such a determined violence against his subjects as "From Enchantment to Down" does. In the end, the decision lies with the viewer: is this work functioning to glamorize violence or is it satirizing Disney's notions of femininity? Consider the images for yourself below and let us know what you think!
Photos courtesy of thomasczarnecki.com
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Comments (12)
  written by Laurie, February 06, 2012
ugh, I hate this kind of "art photography" if you can call it that. I'm tired of the "dead girl" cliche, another dudes fantasy of killing girls and making it look sexy and cool. Bleh.
 written by ElenaF38, February 06, 2012
You can view Dina Goldstein's brilliant photos here: http://www.veraciria.com/blog/...goldstein/
It's a try at the same satire the author was hinting at, but without the sadomasochist feel, and she does a beautiful and striking job. Pretty photos here, too, but I think Czarnecki does a good job of making the Disney princesses look like victims, alluding to rape and violence, in this work. So any attempt at satire falls flat, in my opinion.
written by Muse, February 06, 2012
While I am concerned at the portrayal of violence againist women I feel the need to remind people that pre Disney these stories were filled with rape violence and murder and other taboo subjects.
written by karlydean, February 06, 2012
I really only like the Alice photo, Maybe it because she does not look dead but broken and lost. The dead rabbit and rabble are great visuals. Instead of a Wonderland she is really homeless and Schizophrenic. The rest just look like dead Princesses and nothing else.
written by Laurie, February 07, 2012
thanks for posting Dina Goldstein's work, it's way more interesting and provocative than the dead girls.
written by moose, February 08, 2012
having grown up on the disney filth and the fairytails that have constantly been shoved in my face, i adore these stories whether i want to or not.
it's like being told that it's bad luck to have a black cat cross your path, as you grow you realize that maybe that's bullshit. but it always sticks with you. disney princesses will always stick with me. these don't bring to light the bullshit disney propaganda that women are not at all equal, no matter how strong or smart they are. no matter how hard they try to change things to better themselves. that their worth is absolutely dependent on their beauty and on how easy it is to control them. it's absolutely true, without a doubt, that the original stories are indeed laced with rape, violence, pedophilia, death, et cetera. while these depictions of the disney princesses are saying what we've all suspected (that these girls we always young, beautiful and at the whims of others) i feel that it's totally been done before. and better too. i suppose i can see the art of them all, these pictures feel unoriginal and worse...they feel pornographic and super glam-violent. yes,there is a vast market for this kinda thing, and fashion and t.v. is littered with these ideas/images. but i'd rather see new ideas, new heroines, new ideals. the most beautiful and shocking thing is a new way of thinking.
written by Lauren Bitch, February 08, 2012
These photos are boring! That's what makes me most mad of all. Being a feminist who has had a lot of years of self-loathing, I understand both sides of the story here. I've certainly thought of this type of idea before, and at one point wanted to have photos of myself in various stylized 'dead' poses, but thankfully realized before I did it that it's a trite idea. These also are trite. There are no stories here in which to read. Most of the photos look like the princesses fell down, or maybe are sleeping off a hard night. They are neither shocking for their outlandish violence towards women (excluding Ariel, who appears to be a woman who was wrapped in plastic and left to die on shore - shudder) nor glamorous. Snow White and Red Riding Hood don't even get set-pieces. Cinderella's is the only photo where a story is told, where perhaps in her mad dash to escape losing face at the ball and turning back into her old poor self, she trips and falls down a flight of stairs and breaks her neck. Tragic, but thought-provoking at least. The rest are just dull and sensationalist without the sensation. 'Oh looks, a dead Disney Princess. So...?' It's not even the anti-woman undertones that bother me so much as the pure laziness. This counts as art? This counts as something I should give a damn about? If you're going to insult me at least do it creatively.
 written by Intern Kelsie, February 08, 2012
I love the dialogue this instigated!
And I agree, while I was ambivalent about the photographs' commentary and intent, I was 100% sure that I thought their artistic merit was lacking. Great to hear all of your ideas! Thanks for all your comments!
written by Smokiechick, February 09, 2012
One of the first things we learn in Literary and Critical Theory as Literature students is that authors are notoriously unreliable when it comes to what they say they "mean". I take visual artists with the same gigantic grain of salt.
I almost like these. They take all the violence that Disney denied these characters and heap it on them after "The End". What happens after the wedding? Disney leaves us in the dark, but too many of us know that that is when the violence starts. He's trapped her now; she's his. While some of these settings are public or not suitable for princes - who got the fairy tale they expected, really?
written by pinkgirl545, February 12, 2012
I like the Alice one because it actually evokes part of that story. What if Alice didn't get back out of Wonderland, what if she were trapped underground? And the rabbit adds something to it. But the rest of them just seem like another way to show a dead girl in a dress.
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