For the past eight months I have been working on a special personal project.
Last year I met Abby Nicola when she came to me for some headshots – and as fate would have it I discovered she was a part-time Professional Princess, with a slew of costumes and princess personas. She made extra time to play these characters at birthday parties, community events and for charitable functions for kids.
I loved the idea of a singular person playing all of these fairytale characters – and it seemed the perfect subject for a portrait series. I asked if she would be willing to collaborate with me to create a singular whimsical portrait of each princess – and she agreed wholeheartedly!
I decided to shoot all of the images from above, and also to use dry ice in all of the images to give them a very dreamy vibe. We had so much fun on this project, and I’m very happy it’s finally time to share them.
Now, here is a bit from Abby on the process and experience:
“Growing up, I’ve always been a lover of fairytales. Not even for the cliche “happily ever after”… but rather a fascination with the fantasy realm. That fascination evolved as I got older and transposed into creative outlets such as theater and creative writing. I took it even further after graduate school turning a capstone project into a tangible business.
I wanted to combine my two passions: fairytales and working with kids. During my 6 years in business, I dressed up as classic fairytale characters for birthday party performances, library story times, and local community events. During that time, I made a lot of connections with some wonderful non-profit organizations such as Make A Wish and the Children’s Hospital. I have now retired my princess appearances to merely a hobby… making appearances mostly for these non-profit organizations and pursuing creative outlets like the project with Jenn!
I came into her studio to get updated theater headshots and boy was it a meeting of two artistic minds! When she found out about my “princess side hustle”, our creative wheels started spinning. The process of this entire project was incredible; seeing Jenn in her element and working with her team creating our own version of these classic characters.
Jenn not only has a gift, but she has passion… with that combination, she creates more magic than you can find in any fairytale. ~Abby”
Most makeup by the lovely, creative and talented Theresa Balistreri / Clean Modern Pretty Makeup and expert dry-ice assisting and handling on all shoots by Mike Hiller.
If you’re interested in some behind-the-scenes photos, take a scroll below:
