Shon D.- Homme
Posts: 3,074
Virginia Beach, Virginia, US
To answer the question: I think that photographing children as adults can really work. Thylane Blondeau was 10 when she participated in an editorial that satirized the obsession with youth and beauty. A bunch of Americans lost their shit, it was great. Also, one of my favorite photographs ever is Sally Mann's "Candy Cigarette" which featured a child who was presumably smoking.
The child on your like-page just looks like a kid in dramatic lighting, not like an adult or in any kind of adult situation.
KungPaoChic
Posts: 1,864
West Palm Beach, Florida, US
Shon D.- Homme wrote: To answer the question: I think that photographing children as adults can really work. Thylane Blondeau was 10 when she participated in an editorial that satirized the obsession with youth and beauty. A bunch of Americans lost their shit, it was great. Also, one of my favorite photographs ever is Sally Mann's "Candy Cigarette" which featured a child who was presumably smoking.
The child on your like-page just looks like a kid in dramatic lighting, not like an adult or in any kind of adult situation.
Pretty much.
I can't say much without getting into a critique but suffice to say those images are not what agencies are looking for if you are asking if those images are commercially viable.
Shon D.- Homme wrote: To answer the question: I think that photographing children as adults can really work. Thylane Blondeau was 10 when she participated in an editorial that satirized the obsession with youth and beauty. A bunch of Americans lost their shit, it was great. Also, one of my favorite photographs ever is Sally Mann's "Candy Cigarette" which featured a child who was presumably smoking.
The child on your like-page just looks like a kid in dramatic lighting, not like an adult or in any kind of adult situation.
That's one side of it. The other side is that other photographers aren't satirizing the obsession with youth and beauty, but abusing it and exploiting it. Taking it too far, sexualizing little children should make us uneasy. Satirizing it should make us think about the issue. It shouldn't trivialize the issue.
For the record, I thought Sally Mann's series was brilliant.
hassanchop wrote: IMO most children's beauty pageants are creepy. Fake teeth, fake tans, fake hair on children and stage moms on roids no thank you
The facebook pics were not like pageant pics.
The question of kids being photographed looking like adults is too vague for me to discuss, however I do find those "beauty pageants" and those like Honey Boo Boo offensive!
Personally I don't find it offensive I just find it sad. Kids are kids and there is lots of beauty in just that fact alone and wonder, if you photograph them as adults you take that away.
I don't think people get offended by children photographing older, they usually get offended by the attempt to shoot a child to look sexually appealing.
I don't think people get offended by children photographing older, they usually get offended by the attempt to shoot a child to look sexually appealing.
To bring back the Sally Mann thing ... a lot of the controversy of that work wasn't just because she photographed naked kids ... little kids are naked all the time. I'd be shocked if there were more than a handful of people in this thread whose parents don't have at least one nudie photo of them as a little kid.
So no, the nudity itself was not the problem.
The problem was that the kids in the images were displaying a level of self-awareness that is usually only seen in adults. When you look at your baby photos, you probably have no idea you're naked in them - you're just running around, having a bath, whatever. But Mann's kids look like they are intentionally naked, or at the very least aware that they are being photographed in the nude. How much of this is direction and how much is the kids' upbringing I can't say, even after reading/watching a lot on the subject.
But when the subject's demeanor changes, it changes the relationship between image and viewer, and as a result the viewer's response to the image changes.
How much shit you're willing to get yourself into is up to you. It's potentially a lot ... or absolutely none at all. One thing is for sure though: if I were to do that, I'd only photograph kids from my own family. It's a lot harder to shake the accusations of pedophilia when they're strangers that you've brought in to photograph. In my mind, the only time you should be photographing kids you don't know as adults, PG or otherwise, is if you already have an established body of innocent work, preferably something published, or if you're looking to make a statement and you don't mind possible controversy.