Film and media production takes you to a lot of places. Today I stood in front of a digital billboard in Salford, iphone in hand, poised to take a photo. As adverts for familiar brands scrolled, I waited for my moment, my beautiful friend Sabbi Kaur Bentley appearing as Brown Rapunzel. There she was! A quick snap, a selfie where I nearly fell over the metal barrier in my haste to get in the frame, and it was in the bag.
"},{"id":"78728312","imageFile":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/77982/1678793796-video_insight_princesses_02.jpg","alt":null,"height":1000,"width":750}},{"id":"78728313","text":"Sabbi had submitted her Brown Rapunzel photograph and poem to a competition run by POCC and Shutterstock to promote artists of South Asian heritage. The finalists were displayed on billboards across the UK, and armed with a mega spreadsheet of locations and times, we had struck gold in Salford. There she was; an ethereal beauty in a white wedding dress with hennaed hands and feet, a brown Rapunzel, a real princess.
"},{"id":"78728314","imageFile":{"url":"https://www.datocms-assets.com/77982/1678793859-video_insight_princesses_19.jpg","alt":null,"height":1314,"width":876}},{"id":"78728315","text":"Sabbi’s poem touches me deeply because I know how much of a struggle is has been for her to embody two often opposing cultures. I love that she is staking her claim on both East and West and demanding her right to mix and match. It means a lot to know that modelling for the Brown Rapunzel shoot inspired Sabbi to express herself in such an uncompromising way.
\nBrown Rapunzel was a concept born in 2014. Back then we had a sister company, specialising in wedding photography and videography. Our wedding customers were diverse, but the industry was not. The wedding blogs and mags featured wall-to-wall white: white dresses, white models, white couples; and in our diverse corner of South Manchester, this felt very jarring.
"},{"id":"78728316","vimeoLink":{"url":"https://vimeo.com/140914508"}},{"id":"78728317","text":"We weren’t the only ones who felt this way. Nova Reid, now a renowned thought leader, TED speaker, author and producer, began her journey to activism, when as a black bride, she witnessed a woeful lack of representation in the wedding industry. Back in 2012, Nova started her own blog, Nu Bride, to add a much-needed splash of diversity to the bridal world. It was Nu Bride that inspired us to create Real Princesses, a series of bridal shoots with women of different ethnicities styled as fairytale princesses.
\nOver a year we worked with four women, who were not pro models, and sourced dresses and venues to bring the iconic fairytale scenes to life. Each princess was expertly styled by make-up artist Aimee Akbar, while wedding planner Pamella Dunn wowed us with her incredible décor.
\nAs a producer, this was a labour of love for me. I spent hours trawling the internet to find the perfect locations. I used my powers of persuasion to convince venues to let us shoot there and designers to lend us the dresses free of charge. I collaborated with Pamella Dunn to source accessories and props and even stepped in as makeup artist for Cinderella.
\nThe result was an epic four part styled shoot with Sabbi as Rapunzel, Tammy as Sleeping Beauty, Wendy as Cinderella and Gifty as Snow White in a series of sumptuous photographs that amazed the wedding community. We were honoured when Nova Reid agreed to feature Real Princesses on her blog and even published an article about the shoot on the Huffington Post.
\nI still love these photos, and for me one of the best things that came out of the shoot is that the princesses still treasure them too. It’s nice to know that it was an empowering experience for them to be part of this project. With Sabbi’s poem and photograph being featured on billboards around the country and plans for a Real Princesses exhibition, I hope that the impact of Real Princesses can continue.
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