Norbert Enker
Germany's Fairy Tale Forests

Norbert Enker went on the trail of Grimms' fairy tales in Germany. The task was completed after visiting 44 fairy tale forests and covering a distance of 10,926 kilometres. It is with great pleasure that he now would like to introduce you to his completed work.

This year sees the 200th anniversary of the publication of the Grimms' fairy tales; the widest spread stories worldwide and best known book in the German language next to the Bible. The fairy tales collected and published by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm may seem like harmless children's stories, but make no mistake: They are full of violence and cruelty. A boy is fattened up to be slaughtered and cooked; a girl is eaten alive by a wild animal and a woman poisoning her step child. Most of the crimes described in the Grimm fairy tales would today be a case for the FBI.

The Germans always had a unique relationship with the forest-- a symbolic part of their homeland. The forest was not only a source of inspiration for the romantic imagination (romantics?), but also the birthplace of fairy tales –- a world of princes and princesses, witches and wolves, plucky children, wicked stepmothers and talking animals.

“My intention was to unite both big motives of German culture, 'fairy tales' and 'forest' and went on a photographic research in fairy tale forests. I didn’t want to transfigure or idealise them, but appreciate what they were and still are for me and many little and those adults who were children themself at one stage: Places of childhood remembrances which wait for rediscovery or even revival.”

The first exhibition ‘Germany’s fairy tale forests’ will take place in spring 2013, in the Fairy Tales Museum in Bad Oeynhausen. Furthermore, video presentations will be running in several Goethe-Institutes, to cover the event.

For further information please see: norbert-enker.de/projekte/maerchenwald/
or contact: foto@norbert-enker.de