The images in this series were captured in 2019 at a renaissance faire in New York State. My intention was to document the patrons and staff of the event and investigate their romanticization of the 16th century. I also aimed to pose questions about their intentions around inserting themselves into a fantastical time period. Is the current social and political climate so distressing that they feel comfortable in a 16th century setting? Does fantasizing and recreating the 16th century, an extremely hierarchical time period, make these people feel removed from contemporary class concerns? The people in these images seem to have built beautiful yet historically inaccurate narratives, ones in which the 16th century was idyllic for all types of people. Here, I have documented the fantasy of an ideal time period despite its obvious social and political strife.
