Once Upon A Time

“Once upon a Time”

‘Once upon a Time’ was how it all began, It was early August, we had just started Wonderland, and Saturdays meant I would always be out researching for new locations in the woods near my home. I would spend hours wandering with my camera hunting for trees with interesting bark and twisted branches, in the hope of discovering timeless places that would fit the mood of the tales I dreamt of telling through my pictures.

That morning after leaving the normal path and climbing up to steeper ground, I came across a hidden pit, like a giant bite out of the earth, just big enough for a human to lay down inside. I carefully lowered myself into the space, brushing the warm soil walls with my hands, instantly feeling a lurch of excitement as an idea began to grow. I had long imagined an image of a girl surrounded by hundreds of books as an entry point to the series, but a lack of props and location meant it had never been anything I thought achievable. Later, as I sat on the edge of the hole, legs dangling in the sun thoughts began to flow and I found myself rushing home to draw frantic sketches of a girl with long white Rapunzel length hair, asleep on a bed of stories.

I racked my brains, wondering how we could ever find enough books to create our picture, when I remembered a local donations website I had joined in the hope of gathering scraps for props. I looked it up and by strange coincidence that very day a woman was giving away her entire encyclopedia collection. Four hours later I was driving home with the biggest smile and a car packed full of seventy beautiful leather-bound books! I feel terrible admitting to this, but in order for the books to appear aged, I spent the next two weeks soaking each one in buckets of tea and coffee and laying them out in my garden to be dried by the sun. The process took forever: every night they had to be packed away, and every morning before work I laid them out again in the garden. I would spray them down with a hose, crush their pages with my hands until it looked like they had been read a thousand times and they eventually reached their perfect state.

By mid-August we were ready, and set off for the shoot in the afternoon sun. It was the first time I had ever photographed Katie. Elbie helped her into the old lace dress, while Matt and I started throwing the books into the pit with great whoops of joy. There is something strangely liberating about throwing books – it’s the type of thing you’d never be allowed to do as a child. We all had a go, laughing as we hurled them with great satisfying whacks and slaps onto the growing pile beneath us. Katie must have thought we were mad, but by the time Matt lowered her into position it felt like we’d all known each other for years and our sides ached from the giggles over doing something so silly.

Once everything was ready, I can’t quite explain how it felt as I watched Katie slowly stretch out into her pose through the lens. We found ourselves standing in a real fairy tale, one that we had created entirely by ourselves. All around us was so quiet, punctuated only by the occasional echo of birdsong mixed with the rush of the stream flowing close by. Golden mid-summer light fell through the branches and across Katie’s motionless body as she lay silent, like a broken doll on her bed of crumpled pages. At first I hesitated, just staring at what we had done, unable to connect this feeling to anything I had experienced before. Then I began taking the pictures, letting out the odd little gasp of wonder.

The minutes passed until half an hour later it was over and the light was gone. Elbie and I began jumping up and down hugging each other with wild excited eyes. We pulled Katie from the pit and began dragging our equipment back through the woods triumphantly shouting and singing. Katie stumbled behind still in the long dress, while Matt struggled to keep up, pulling the books in a trolley he’d made from our old wheelie bin. We had no choice but to rush, as there was one more location to shoot before the sun went down and time ran out.

Looking back I will always remember driving away that day. Everyone was sitting in the front excitedly chatting, while I sat behind balanced on top of the books and the stepladder. As we pulled out onto the road, the trees disappeared from view and the sky filled the back window. The low sun filtered through the clouds and I looked up and thought of mum. It had been such glorious, happy, chaos – I’d never felt like this. It was a strange mix of achievement, wonder and joy, but above all I suddenly felt so very much alive. It had been a good day, a great day in fact. That wasn’t something I was used to thinking much anymore, and warmth spread through me as I looked back at my new friends, whilst I held my camera tightly in my hands.