“Live the Fairy Tale” photographic exhibition at Mater Dei

I went to the launch of Kerstin Arnemann’s exhibition of photographs at Mater Dei hospital recently which was launched by the Minister of Health, Dr Joe Cassar still looking slim after his diet a year or so ago, and an example of what one can achieve with some self-discipline.  Kerstin works at the Austrian embassy and has been a keen amateur photographer since around 1980. She attended her first photography course last year and then joined the MIPP. She told me: “Photography is a medium by which I can communicate and express myself. It raised my awareness of simple things: e.g. a smile, an insect, people full of joy, a flower… everything that surrounds me.”  Her enthusiasm is contagious. As a relatively novice photographer she is enthusiastic to use photography to create works that stimulate the minds of people and energise their spirits. Art, she believes, in general,  has the capacity to awaken social consciousness. She comments: “Through photography I can lead, follow, uplift or provoke.”

The beautiful photos she has produced are based on Grimm’s Fairytales, a German collection first published in 1812 by the Grimm brothers, Jacob and Wilhelm and with which most of us are familiar.  Why fairytales I asked her? She believes that in an era of such rapid electronic progress, she hopes to bring back the good old times of reading fairytales. This immediately brings to mind that wonderful book by Bruno Bettelheim – himself an Austrian-born American Jew  – The Uses of Enchantment. In it Bettelheim analyzes fairytales in terms of Freudian psychology.  He discusses the emotional and symbolic importance of fairy tales for children. Bettelheim suggests that traditional fairy tales, with their darkness of abandonment, death, witches, and injuries, allow children to grapple with their fears.  If they could read and interpret these fairytales in their own way, he states in the book, they would get a greater sense of meaning and purpose;  that by engaging with these stories, children would go through emotional growth that would better prepare them for their own futures. It is ironic that having survived the concentration camps of Dachau and Buchenwald where he spent 11 months and where as a result of an amnesty declared for Hitler’s birthday in 1939, he ended his own life by placing a plastic bag on his head in his old age, after the death of his second wife.

This book is only now coming to mind and I wonder if Kerstin has ever read it and perhaps got the idea for these photos from reading Bettelheim. I must ask her. I also ask myself how I managed to find so much time to read so many books. Now this is almost impossible as there are so many other distractions.

Kerstin thinks that nowadays fairytales are an exhausted art form. ‘In my opinion we can understand reality only through a mythic lens and fairy tales once provided that lens. I still remember the magic nights when my mum told me fairytales sitting close to my bed before falling asleep and the joy she gave me. I hope to motivate young and old to remember the magic moments fairytales can give us and to keep them alive.”

In her collection of six photos which Kerstin has donated to Mater Dei hospital in order “to give pleasure to whoever passes by them,” she tries to evoke an imaginary mix of fairytale nostalgia with a real setting. She hopes to motivate young and old to reacqauint themselves with the fairytales they no longer remember and once again feel their magic.

The fairytales she has chosen are Snow White, Tom Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Hansel and Gretel and The Frog King.

The models she used in the photos, were not professional models as she wanted “to show the real innocence of the characters in the fairy tales I chose” she said in her speech and thanked those models who were present.

She also quoted Albert Einstein and Audrey Hepburn. Here is the Einstein one: “When I examine myself and my methods of thought, I come to the conclusion that the gift of fantasy has meant more to me than any talent for abstract, positive thinking.” Let’s keep this quote in mind and read to our children so that they will become readers themselves, enter the world of fantasy,  and not spend so much time stuck to gadgets and to games which are mostly a waste of time.

But Kerstin has another reason behind this exhibition. It all started when her mother fell very ill last June in Germany and needed to be moved to an old people’s home. “My idea was to make a gift for Christmas which will bring her some joy and at the same time keep her busy and interested in some simple activities such as reading. So I decided to extend this idea to Malta at Mater Dei hospital.” In fact Kerstin donated all the prints after the exhibition ended to the hospital.  The exhibition is now over but if you are at Mater Dei, one of these days, ask someone where they have been hung and go and take a look.