Henrike Stahl creates a rich and abundant photographic universe. For this residency, she has chosen to explore the myth of the princess, anchoring it in contemporary reality. Living for a time in the outbuilding of an old castle in Normandy, she became interested in today's castle owners, seeking out their modern faces.
Today, castle owners are no longer exclusively from the aristocracy: they are often self-taught entrepreneurs, contemporary builders of a living heritage. Echoing this reality, Henrike Stahl sets out to demystify castle life and deconstruct idealised representations of the princess figure — often passive, frozen, dependent on a narrative that is not her own.
She reflects on this with tenderness for her daughter, who is soon to turn 13 and loves to ‘dream herself in all the roles of princesses’ — to remind her that she can be the author of her own story, without having to wait for a prince to write the lines.