Kirsty Mitchell started Wonderland, a photography series, in the year 2009. Originally, it was something she was going to cope with her mother’s death, which had happened in November 2008. Additionally, it was to be a tribute to her mother, who had been an English teacher and loved fairy tales and story books. Kirsty wanted to create a series of photos that would convey an unexplained storybook. However, she had no idea of what the project would actually become.
Originally, the project was just supposed to be for one summer and involve a few photo shoots. However, it actually turned into a five year project with several photo shoots involved. One particularly important shoot was titled “Gaia – The Birth of an End.”
Looking at this particular shoot shows just how much effort Kirsty puts into her work. She is extremely detail oriented and just wants to make every single element of her work amazing. The effort that goes into each of her shoots is extremely impressive, involving body painting, facial makeup, and attaching costumes. She actually spends months planning in order to get all of these components of her art absolutely flawless. On her website, she explains in a blog post that some of her characters take 5 months to create physically and up to a whole year of planning. She works with a hair and makeup artist to create a whole alternate reality for each of her characters.
Her work has become true art on many different levels.