Clara Fortuny's Surreal Fairy Tales: A Photographic Reimagining

Catalan photographer Clara Fortuny presents 'Fairy Tales', a personal project that deconstructs classic childhood fables into an adult, sensual, and at times unsettling visual narrative. The series features images such as a glass slipper abandoned on a stone in a stream, a hand covered in black tar caressing a girl's face, and a woman holding a red apple while her reflection multiplies on water. Fortuny, who works at the intersection of fashion photography, still life, and storytelling, employs both digital and film (35mm and 120mm) to create a dreamlike universe suspended between aesthetics and strangeness. Her vibrant color palette contrasts with dark, tense settings, as seen in the red of the apple and nail polish against the black of the staining hand. The project deliberately omits captions, allowing objects and gestures to evoke familiar tales without explicit reference. Fortuny aims to restore the moral ambiguity, danger, and attraction to the forbidden that are inherent in traditional fairy tales, without softening them for an adult audience. The work interrogates what remains of these stories once innocence is stripped away. The project is part of Fortuny's broader artistic output, which continuously reinterprets identity, beauty, and femininity. The article also mentions other photography features, including Ciro Silvestre's Mediterranean beaches, Marcus Wallinder's dystopian surrealism, and a piece on street photography's boundaries.