This Illustration is, along with the following piece, "Fairies 002", the first in an ongoing series of illustrations dedicated to delving into the popularity and enduring legacy of the fairy myth.
As I write this, I find myself remembering the true tale of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), and his obsession with authenticating the "existence" of fairies toward the end of his life. As an elderly man, Doyle actually created a public competition wherein he would reward anyone who had succeeded to bring photographic evidence of fairies romping about in our waking lives.
As this contest had taken place barely a decade after the first still image photography and daguerreotypes were realized in and around the turn of the 20th century, the submissions were variegated, multifaceted, fanciful...and entirely fraudulent.
Astonishing....even master detective writers who should and (presumably) did know better were not above suspending their innate disbelief all in the service of a dream-like assemblages of mythic entities...no doubt, to offset the increasingly implosive realities of a harsh, cruel modern era.
As I write this, I find myself remembering the true tale of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (the creator of Sherlock Holmes), and his obsession with authenticating the "existence" of fairies toward the end of his life. As an elderly man, Doyle actually created a public competition wherein he would reward anyone who had succeeded to bring photographic evidence of fairies romping about in our waking lives.
As this contest had taken place barely a decade after the first still image photography and daguerreotypes were realized in and around the turn of the 20th century, the submissions were variegated, multifaceted, fanciful...and entirely fraudulent.
Astonishing....even master detective writers who should and (presumably) did know better were not above suspending their innate disbelief all in the service of a dream-like assemblages of mythic entities...no doubt, to offset the increasingly implosive realities of a harsh, cruel modern era.
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