The kids aren't alright
As a childphotographer, being extremely passionate about giving children the bestpossible opportunity in life to grow up in a safe environment I felt verystrongly about using them as the main subject for this project. Moving to NewZealand at the age of sixteen and having a parent work as a child therapist, Isoon realized that many children here don’t get to grow up in the same, safeenvironment I grew up in. I was amazed to see the amount of attention in themedia directed at family violence. This is obviously a major issue and if notaddressed appropriately will stay a vicious circle where the future will repeatitself.
It is agiven fact that children copy the actions and behaviors they see around them. Erik Erikson talks about this within histheory on “The eight stages of Man”,therefore I decided to use this particular concept to create images that wouldopen people’s eyes and hopefully make them think twice.
For my firstimage I chose to photograph a young girl, pulling her middle finger at theviewer to symbolize violence through words and actions, which is one of themain problems within family violence. I wanted her to look straight into thecamera, without smiling, to enhance the seriousness of the image. I left therest of the scene very simple on purpose, so your attention would be drawn onlyto her and what she is doing. Having the plaster on her arm, it works as a nicelittle signifier that the issue of violence causes a lot of pain. Being achild, you can tell that she doesn’t understand the full intensity of heraction. It doesn’t look as strong as when an adult does it, which I believemakes this image therefore a lot stronger, because it shows that children oftendon’t understand the full extent of what they’re doing.
The secondimage I shot was that of a boy, holding a beer bottle. Alcoholism is a huge problemwithin New Zealand culture which often starts as binge drinking, underteenagers. To have the young child hold a beer bottle, I wanted the message tobe clear and simple: that drinking alcohol often starts at a very young age andthat we as a country need to make some changes as it will affect every singleone of us, in one way or another. Again, I asked the child to look straightinto the camera without smiling, to really get the message across that this isa very serious problem.
My thirdimage is that of a young girl wearing a lot of make-up. The media these daysseems to become more and more about “looking good”. Statistics show that eachperson is exposed to hundreds of advertisements each day, starting from anextremely young age. Children pick up these messages simply from watching TVand imagery all around them, affecting their ways of perceiving what is normal,causing many children to start feeling insecure from a very young age, which Ibelieve is a different form of abuse. To really get this message across, Iasked the girl to cross her arms, to emphasis this feeling of being very“closed” and not feeling good enough about yourself.
The lastimage I took was that of a young boy smoking. Again this is a problem that isaddressed on TV and all around us every single day. Whether children want it ornot, they get affected by people around them who smoke and affects theirhealth.
What all theimages have in common is that they are all very simplistic and shot and editedin a similar way. I decided on using harsh shadows, extremely pale faces and anoverall blue tone to add to the cold atmosphere and serious problem that isportrayed in each photo.
For thisproject in particular I was influenced by the works of Vee Speers and herseries “The Birthday Party”. Her wayof portraying these children in a simple and almost surreal way really capturesyour interest. Some of her images have a slightly awkward feel to them, making them,I believe, very powerful, because it makes you think about the meaning behindher work.
Anotherphotographer I looked at closely is Loretta Lux. Again, her work also has avery surreal feel to it. And although it is very different to mine, it made merealize that less is often more and that simplicity can often be the key to creatingvery strong images.
And finally,a photographer called Jonathan Hobin, whose project “In The Playroom”, I accidently stumbled across, helped me figureout my concept. With his work he photographed children in the playroom, usingtheir toys to act out serious problems and issues that are all around us. Oneof his images for example is of two boys building two towers with blocks, whilecrashing into them with toy planes.
It made merealize that children often take in a lot more than we think and that these“adult problems” affect them too. No matter how much we try to shield theseissues to our children, they are always going to influence them as long as theycome in contact with the outside world.
I hope mywork can act as an eye opener and make us realize that today’s children becomeour future and that we need to set examples for them, so that issues suchas family violence, alcohol abuse andlow self esteem don’t repeat itself.
By FleurVerhoeven
It is agiven fact that children copy the actions and behaviors they see around them. Erik Erikson talks about this within histheory on “The eight stages of Man”,therefore I decided to use this particular concept to create images that wouldopen people’s eyes and hopefully make them think twice.
For my firstimage I chose to photograph a young girl, pulling her middle finger at theviewer to symbolize violence through words and actions, which is one of themain problems within family violence. I wanted her to look straight into thecamera, without smiling, to enhance the seriousness of the image. I left therest of the scene very simple on purpose, so your attention would be drawn onlyto her and what she is doing. Having the plaster on her arm, it works as a nicelittle signifier that the issue of violence causes a lot of pain. Being achild, you can tell that she doesn’t understand the full intensity of heraction. It doesn’t look as strong as when an adult does it, which I believemakes this image therefore a lot stronger, because it shows that children oftendon’t understand the full extent of what they’re doing.
The secondimage I shot was that of a boy, holding a beer bottle. Alcoholism is a huge problemwithin New Zealand culture which often starts as binge drinking, underteenagers. To have the young child hold a beer bottle, I wanted the message tobe clear and simple: that drinking alcohol often starts at a very young age andthat we as a country need to make some changes as it will affect every singleone of us, in one way or another. Again, I asked the child to look straightinto the camera without smiling, to really get the message across that this isa very serious problem.
My thirdimage is that of a young girl wearing a lot of make-up. The media these daysseems to become more and more about “looking good”. Statistics show that eachperson is exposed to hundreds of advertisements each day, starting from anextremely young age. Children pick up these messages simply from watching TVand imagery all around them, affecting their ways of perceiving what is normal,causing many children to start feeling insecure from a very young age, which Ibelieve is a different form of abuse. To really get this message across, Iasked the girl to cross her arms, to emphasis this feeling of being very“closed” and not feeling good enough about yourself.
The lastimage I took was that of a young boy smoking. Again this is a problem that isaddressed on TV and all around us every single day. Whether children want it ornot, they get affected by people around them who smoke and affects theirhealth.
What all theimages have in common is that they are all very simplistic and shot and editedin a similar way. I decided on using harsh shadows, extremely pale faces and anoverall blue tone to add to the cold atmosphere and serious problem that isportrayed in each photo.
For thisproject in particular I was influenced by the works of Vee Speers and herseries “The Birthday Party”. Her wayof portraying these children in a simple and almost surreal way really capturesyour interest. Some of her images have a slightly awkward feel to them, making them,I believe, very powerful, because it makes you think about the meaning behindher work.
Anotherphotographer I looked at closely is Loretta Lux. Again, her work also has avery surreal feel to it. And although it is very different to mine, it made merealize that less is often more and that simplicity can often be the key to creatingvery strong images.
And finally,a photographer called Jonathan Hobin, whose project “In The Playroom”, I accidently stumbled across, helped me figureout my concept. With his work he photographed children in the playroom, usingtheir toys to act out serious problems and issues that are all around us. Oneof his images for example is of two boys building two towers with blocks, whilecrashing into them with toy planes.
It made merealize that children often take in a lot more than we think and that these“adult problems” affect them too. No matter how much we try to shield theseissues to our children, they are always going to influence them as long as theycome in contact with the outside world.
I hope mywork can act as an eye opener and make us realize that today’s children becomeour future and that we need to set examples for them, so that issues suchas family violence, alcohol abuse andlow self esteem don’t repeat itself.
By FleurVerhoeven
