Smithsonian magazine's 22nd Annual Photo Contest | Made possible through the support of MPB.com

18th Annual Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest Altered Images
ALICE, LIFE IS WHAT YOU DECIDE - "The Key"

The project freely reinterprets Lewis Carroll’s masterpiece “Alice in Wonderland”, concentrating and analyzing the image of Alice and the teachings of life that can be drawn from the fairy tale. The title combines the images represented in the series; Alice’s character has become an android, tied with threads and imprisoned in an aseptic room while maintaining a gaze full of courtesy and desire to dream. In these images, conceptually we witness the growth of the protagonist, this is not only on a physical level, because the girl is big in relation to the room, but the moment represented is that of the gaze turned in the direction she is about to take, her first independent decision. The growth takes place completely when Alice is in the vortex of the cards, fate envelops her, the various suits represent the phases of love (hearts), pain (spades), luck (flowers), wisdom (paintings). A green potion in her hand and a key with the shape of her heart on the other side will reveal: life, luck and love, balance of life without prejudices and without vices The epilogue is represented by Alice’s full awareness of the surrounding world, who becomes queen of her own destiny, conscious of her own decisions and of her life finally freed from the bonds of adolescence, the girl has become a woman.

Photo Detail
Date Taken: 06.2018
Date Uploaded: 11.2020
Photo Location: Rome, Italy
Camera: Canon EOS 6D
Copyright: © Karmilla Shelly