Karissa Carlson

“Over in a corner between two houses…she sat down  and huddled. She tucked her tiny legs under her, but she froze even more..Alas! One little match would do so much good!…It was a warm clear flame…the matches shone with such a radiance it was brighter than the light of day…The morning of the New Year dawned over the little body sitting with the matches, of which a bunch was almost burnt up. She had wanted to warm herself, it was said…”

The Little Match Girl is a tragic story, yet it is beautiful in a way. The little peasant girl sold no matches on New Year’s Eve, so she lights them for warmth. Each time she lights one, she sees something wonderful. The first time it’s a warm fire, the second a table with a feast on it, the third a beautiful Christmas tree, and finally she sees her Grandmother as she is lighting her last matches. Her grandmother is the one who takes her to heaven. “She [Grandmother] lifted up the little girl in her arms, and in radiance and rejoicing they flew so high, so high. And there was no cold, no hunger, no fear-they were with God”.

I wanted to focus on the mixed beauty and tragedy of this story. We connect fairy tales with “happily ever afters” and dreams coming true, but that is not how Andersen writes. Many of his stories are sad, strange, and downright weird. I’m drawn to The Little Match Girl because of the character’s vulnerability. She is so fragile and her death so tragic, but the sweet note of the story is the way it ends. In a way, she does have a “happily ever after”, just not in the way one would expect.

It probably is evident to the observant eye that I “faked” the match light (no match would ever throw that much light, and in order to burn it in, the shutter would have to be dragged way to long to get a sharp picture). I had a snoot with 2 full CTO gels on it aimed at Marlee’s (my great little model) face. It was really difficult to get the snoot placed just right since it was such a narrow beam of light, and it was also challenging to make sure that the match didn’t cast a shadow on her face from the strobe, which would have given away my “fake”. Also, even the slightest amount of wind blew out the match, so I had to work very quickly. The other light is one strobe zoomed to 70mm with a 1/2 CTB gel aimed at the wall for added depth and a “cold” feeling.

Many thanks to Marlee, Rhonda, and Cortney for helping out on this one!

Source: Andersen’s Fairy Tales, Hans Christian Andersen