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The Wonderland Diaries

The Last Dance of the Flowers

By 16th April 2014November 28th, 202413 Comments

‘The Last Dance Of The Flowers’ 

Sitting down to write this today is a completely different feeling compared to my last few entries, and to be honest it feels like a happy relief.

My head is full of laughter as I look back at this absolutely chaotic shoot; it was carnage from start to finish and we all worked so damn hard. For once, there are no heavy emotions for me, no underlying sadness. I have loved every part of this picture’s creation from concept to shoot – and even the editing. It has felt like a page from my childhood slowly filling with colour, growing under my fingertips as the days have passed and I let go of it today with nothing but joy inside.

It has become a huge favourite of mine and I intend to have the full two-metre-high print on the wall of my own home. Each time I look at it I long to be there again, standing beside Katie in the warm shadows, remembering Elbie’s laughter echoing around us. The wonder of creating these scenes is that I will always be able to connect back to that day with all my senses because we were there and we created that moment together. I know how the earth smelt, I can remember my hands feeling dirty and sticky with the sap from the flowers, and the rush of adrenaline as we raced against the low sun to get the shot before it was too dark.

In the previous scene, ‘The Stars Of Spring Will Carry You Home’, we watched as Katie said her silent goodbye, a last look back at us and all that Wonderland has become. It was her acknowledgement that nature had always been her guardian and was a consistent metaphor for my mother. Katie’s fusion with the flowers depicted this acceptance and the trust she placed in the path she would be led along during her final days. Throughout the series I always used trails in my work to demonstrate journey and movement through a static image – like the yellow leaves in ‘The Journey Home’ or the powdered colour on snow in ‘Spirited Away’. Here I hoped to take that a step further by making the flowers physically lift Katie’s form, raising her up in a surge of colour that would carry her through the forest to the hidden place that had waited patiently for her arrival. At night I dreamt of the flowers coming to life in this last maternal gesture of protection. Inside my own body I could feel my spirits rise with her, a sense of completion on the horizon for both of us as Katie’s journey parallels mine in the real world. I am so close now, just two pictures away from the end. In the mornings I can feel a change inside; I walk to the studio in a different way, I look up again, I feel lighter, I breathe more slowly, I whisper to myself with each step: ‘Almost there; almost there; almost there…’

(original phone snap of me on location)

The whole concept for ‘The Last Dance of the Flowers’ started in June 2013 with one little camera phone picture taken by my husband Matt. I had spent a week location-scouting for Rhododendrons – the buds were on the trees and would bloom any day now. I needed a private place where we would be left alone and out of sight from the public in order to build our floral ‘wave’. I spent my time walking and taking pictures; I found some beautiful areas but nothing that felt dramatically different to others already used in the series. It was only on the afternoon of the fourth day, when I was standing in a path of bright light that Matt happened to take a snap of me on his phone. Later that night, as I was complaining that I felt disheartened and uninspired with my research, Matt passed me the picture on his phone and suddenly everything changed. The irony of seeing myself standing with my back to the most amazing natural vignette of twisted storybook trees, completely unaware of them, was almost laughable! I instantly knew that this was the location and I even stayed completely faithful to the original framing of the phone picture on the day, not once moving my camera position throughout the entire shoot.

The following morning I began work on the wig. I have never made anything like it before and still can’t quite believe it actually worked. It was incredibly difficult to wear and was a baptism of fire for Elbie trying to attach it to poor Katie’s head. We ran several trials of the wig in my studio and then just prayed it would survive on location. Due to the fact that the final scenes were shot in reverse, the wig would later be covered in flowers, and we mastered wiring it to trees for support. But this was the first time Katie had had to cope with its challenges and her only option was to balance it as best she could.

The day of the shoot was absolutely relentless; all Wonderland shoots are exhausting, there has never been a ‘quick’ one and there is always the threat of terrible English weather. I never sleep the night before and if you read this diary regularly you’ll also know I worry for days in advance. However, this shoot really went to a new level of panic because it relied on cutting over 1,000 fresh wild flowers and building a huge construction with them on the very same day as taking the picture! I’ll be blunt: I had no idea how long it would take, no idea if it would work, no idea what I was doing, or whether we would actually be able to collect enough flowers – but the image was so clear in my mind that we just threw ourselves into things regardless!

The day began early in the morning with just Elbie, Saskia and me. We went to the woods armed with bags, scissors, gardening gloves and old clothes, and cut flowers non-stop for four hours. It was exhausting and ridiculous, we quickly became filthy with mud and sap, our hands were cut to ribbons, arms scratched and worst of all we were attacked by mosquitos at every turn. We scrambled up trees and muddy banks, groaning, swearing, laughing, it was hard graft, but it is often this physical part of the photos that is something I relish and love. The child in me delights at the dirt and the wind on my face, especially when there is the promise of something magical at the end of it all. So we worked tirelessly, stashing our hoard in the shade of the trees and returning to the studio to collect the costume, equipment and Katie.

Building the floral ‘wave’ from fresh flowers

By two that afternoon we were back on site and work began on creating the floral ‘wave’. The location was set in the heart of the trees and the warmth and shade there made for a breeding ground for hungry mosquitos. I cannot describe how many there were, but their effect was unbelievable. We coated ourselves in insect repellent but they just kept coming, which is why – as well as our horrible old clothes – we had to wear ridiculous hats to stop us from being bitten on the face and in our hair. I can’t stop laughing looking at the behind- the-scenes pictures because I can remember so clearly the names we were calling each other, not to mention the hysterics we were in after seeing Katie in the full coat and wig for the first time. It was a moment of utter, utter delight. The wig was extraordinary and once it was balanced and Katie was able to walk around, my confidence returned and everything felt possible.

It took further three-and-a-half hours to build the set and eventually get Katie into position ready for the early evening light. Over the previous week I had returned to the site several times to check the position of the sun so we knew exactly where and when it would hit the set. By six-thirty we were ready and once again I was shaking I was so tired and excited. We shot two types of picture, one with smoke and one without. I’m sad to say that Richard our filmmaker was unable to join us that day, so we attempted to shoot some video ourselves as a record, which was of an appalling quality and hugely underexposed. However, it is hysterically funny to watch, especially as you hear me shouting orders at my poor husband Matt, who desperately runs all over the set with the smoke canons, witnessed with amusement by Elbie, who squeals with laughter off-camera.
It was carnage, there is no point in denying it, but my goodness I love the final image so much. It has to be one of the most unbelievable pictures in the series. With the bounty of flowers and the gravity-defying hair; everyone’s reaction has been disbelief and that response is something I will always relish and try to achieve in my work.

 

 

The smoke test shot (in the end we decided against the smoke, but I still love this little behind the scenes shot)

Author Kirsty

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Join the discussion 13 Comments

  • Andrew says:

    I am feeling so amazed by this pictures.. They look soft and strong at the same time… and beautiful… .I love them …great job…. Please, keep on creating such beautiful art

  • Mary Denman says:

    Dear Kirsty,

    A friend sent me a link to your site a few minutes ago. She thought it might be inspiring since I’m a photographer (although nowhere near your level for sure).

    What you’ve done has hit me in a way I can’t quite describe. You see, I lost my mother on 1 May 2013. She was my rock and I miss her more than words can convey. But you understand that.

    My mom taught English. She loved the written word like your mom.

    Tears are streaming down my face as I sit here typing.

    My words fail me….

    I know now that there’s something I’m supposed to do, but I don’t know what just yet. As you started this project to honor your mom, I feel I need to do the same. But I’m not sure how.

    That’s okay. You’ve given me a gift Kirsty. The knowledge that there is something I’m called to do. Just as you searched out locations, only to have your husband snap a shot of you on his phone and this vision and photo shoot was born, I think that will happen to me. It won’t be where I expect it, but it will be exciting when I find it.

    Thank you for sharing your world. And for giving me such a precious gift.

    Mary

  • Exquisite work! Blown away. I’m a creative arts psychotherapist and the images evoke such poignant feelings. Such wonderful and moving works of art. The energy from them brings up archetypal imprints that are stored somewhere in the psyche; familiar at the level of collective unconsciousness and totally original, and brilliantly creative. Just Gorgeous. (I would like a cloak of leaves, please!)

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