Anton Konashuk's Mermaid Tale

These pictures by Anton Konashuk portray a rather depressing take on a mermaid tale, and perhaps a statment about marriage and how it often turns out far differently than expected for many. It's also one of those interpretations that most audiences probably see as a clever, "modern" or "realistic" take on fairy tales, when it actually echoes fairy tales older than the Hans Christian Andersen idea of the mermaid, and much older than Disney's (whose influence is so strong most people don't even realize Andersen's "The Little Mermaid" ends without true love). This story portrayed is closer to the selkie tales in which human men steal the sea maids' seal skins and the maidens agree to marry him...but as soon as they recover their seal skins they return to their home in the sea. The photographer's site doesn't mention his inspiration though, so his hearkening back to such tales may or may not be intentional.