Milligan couldn’t resist taking on the story of The Princess and the Pea and its idea that nobility is measured by one’s physical sensitivity, rather than by character or social worth. She found the perfect octagonal space in the sanctuary of an abandoned church in Crawford County, Ohio.

She discarded her original idea of having the princess lie on peas in a bed, in favor of a bed of peas. It was summer, the peas were frozen, and the princess (Milligan’s mother) “wasn’t too happy,” Milligan remembers.

Repeating a visual element—peas, mirrors, eggs, seeds—connects the photographs and suggests multiple layers of meaning, Milligan said.