We all love a good fairy tale - but what if Snow White ended up dead in an underground car park instead of being whisked off by Prince Charming?

A provocative new series by photographer Thomas Czarnecki casts a spotlight on the concept happy endings. Turning the traditional notion of fairy tales and the perfect princesses who populate them, on its head.

His collection, From Enchantment to Down, envisages scenes that are more suited to a gritty episode of CSI or Dexter than the saccharine delights of Disney that we loved as children.

His photos-below-Red Riding Hood dead outside a barn door, her apples strewed around the corpse.

RED RIDING HOOD MEETS HER END

Meanwhile, The Little Mermaid lies sprawled on a beach and Cinderella is a body on a flight of steps, surrounded by a pumpkin and her slipper.

DEMISE OF THE THE LITTLE MERMAID

Unsuitable for children they may be, but Czarnecki's dark, gritty and complex story frames are not without their light touch. Alice sits amid the wreckage of her particular wonderland, in a portrait titled "Just a Trap," as Beauty is hauled away by the Beast in a scene termed "Not So Romantic."

ALICE IN UN-WONDERLAND

The idea of fairy tales as innately dark and sinister is far from new; in fact, some of the tales were much more gory and grim in original format a few hundred years back, that the sanitised, happy versions we are familiar with today.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST UNCUT

CINDERELLA AT MIDNIGHT

VIA: stylist.co.uk

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