Fairytales: Petra Collins and Alexa Demie

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Demie reached out to Collins to express her desire to play such a character, and they decided to do a photoshoot. In their shared love and connection, something much deeper took root. Together they began crafting their own stories of elves, mermaids, sirens, water sprites, fallen angels, witches, banshees, and fairies – each with a modern twist on the age-old archetypes. Collected in the new book, Fairy Tales (Rizzoli), Collins and Demie proffer a series of fabulous fables that are equal parts sensual, playful, and poignant. Fairy Tales” is a visual storybook of erotic short stories, starring Alexa Demie and shot by Petra Collins. The concept was written and brought to life by the two by creating characters and stories they wish were told to them. A modern, surreal update to classics such as those from Hans Christian Andersen, The Grimm Brothers, Charles Perrault, and more, these nine stories stand uniquely and irrepressibly on their own. Sensual in the way of its approach, “ Fairy Tales” allows an older, more mature audience to enjoy fantasy without the “adolescent” pejorative attached to the genre. Alexa Demie and Petra Collins reimagine the mythical female beings of folk- and fairy-tales. Petra Collins/Rizzoli

Curated by Petra Collins, featuring artists Arvida Bystrom, Harley Weir, Sandy Kim, Jeanette Hayes, Kristie Muller, and more. Forward by Tavi Gevinson. Discharge 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 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.” Petra Collins is a multi-talented artist and director whose photography set the stylistic tone for much of the 2010s. Shooting since the age of 15, her work is fueled by self-discovery and a contemporary femininity which explore the complex intersection of life as a young woman online and off. Collins weaves through the worlds of art, fashion, film, and music. She is currently working on her narrative feature debut set to shoot in 2021. Books 2021 Fairytales 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 lived in two different worlds: our world, and then a full other fantasy world,” Collins tells me from her bedroom in Los Angeles over Zoom on a recent afternoon. “It was the best way of disassociating—making these beautiful worlds.” Collins found resonance with this novel about an outcast girl who believes she’s a mermaid after she finished reading “The Pisces.” “It ruined me. It was a scary accurate depiction of coming of age,” she said. “The main character flutters between what is real and what isn’t – and it’s what I did with ‘Fairy Tales.’” Below, Collins gives five recommendations for coming-of-age and romantic tales tinged with fantastical elements. 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. About The Author The protagonists each deal with feelings of loss and exclusion: the grieving banshee whose life intertwines with two human sisters, or the fallen angel who gives up her lofty paradise to experience the realities of Earth, all detailed in hand-written narratives accompanying the images. Collins’ images often feature Demie’s characters practicing the erotic art form shibari – or Japanese rope bondage – symbolizing losing and regaining a sense of control.

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. 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. The first monograph by photographer Petra Collins presents the world of a thoroughly modern creative. 2015 Babe We’re living in such an absurd time,” she said. “We’re all using these filters. We’re all editing our photos in these crazy ways. So it made the most sense in the way that we would tell what was happening in our time…(We’re) presenting these false…fairy-tale versions of ourselves.” With the book’s Hungarian title Miért vagy te, ha lehetsz én is? Collins asks us: Why be you, when you can be me? Collins uses the camera as the third person. It captures historical truths (such as a time and place) and an emotional reality with a complicated relationship to intention and perception. Working with the sculptor Sarah Sitkin, Collins creates moulds of her body as well as her sisters to gain ownership, in a world where our bodies live in multiple realities. This new body of work features Collins first experiments with self-portraiture. 2019 OMG, I’m Being KilledPlaying pretend is by no means a novel aspect of childhood—but Collins has taken that ethos and made a buzzy career out of it. In just seven years, the Toronto native has established her own uniquely hazy, female-gaze-centric aesthetic; become both muse and protégé to photographer Ryan McGinley; shot countless magazine covers; hosted exhibitions at MoMA and Art Basel, and directed short films and music videos for the likes of Cardi B and Olivia Rodrigo. (Her Good 4 U music video for the 18-year-old singer was most recently nominated for a Grammy—Rodrigo FaceTimed Collins during this very interview to congratulate her.)