Traditionally, staring into flames stimulates visualisation, imagination, creativity, and even prophecy. The decision to burn my childhood Ladybird Book of Cinderella was impulsive, reacting to memories and society’s expectations of women. I didn’t realise then that the original tale speaks about a young girl’s resistance to abuse, where fire and ashes symbolise her ordeal and purification. My photographs preserve fleeting moments of immolation, transforming her rites of passage trajectory into states of urgency.
