Charles Nègre, Charles Marville, Adolphe-Eugène
Disdéri, Mayer & Pierson, Heinrich Kuehn, Hugo Erfurth, August Sander, Lewis Hine,
Alexander Rodchenko, Paul Citroen, Aenne Biermann, Annelise Kretschmer, Raoul
Hausmann, Brassai, Weegee, Lisette Model, Harold E. Edgerton, Michael Ruetz, Achim Lippoth, Michael Schmidt, Rudolf Bonvie, Jochen Gerz, Astrid Klein, Christian Boltanski

The representation of childhood in the mirror of photography, beginning with the early studio photographs from the 19th C. up to contemporary work from the sphere of photography-based art is the theme of this exhibition. It follows with emphasis on the changes in the development of the concept of childhood as mirrored by photography in a myriad of styles.

Every child is a unique individual, however children, in contrast to adults, are often unpredictable and not conscious of themselves to the same degree as adults. They have neither the experience of the past nor a sense for the future with which the experience of aging and death are connected. For this reason, for a long time the concept of childhood as a state of paradisical innocence was presumed. The idea of the uniqueness of every child was, however, less prevalent in the 19th C, since the Victorian ideal encouraged the representation of children as “small adults.” Predominently in the carte-de-visite production of photographers like Adolphe-Eugène Disdéri and Mayer & Pierson, the presentation of the individual child was not the goal, but rather the depiction of a predetermined pose in a predetermined setting. In addition, the necessarily long exposure times encouraged children to hold a rigid pose in contrast to their natural behavior.

With the development of art photography at the turn of the century, the representation of childhood changed. Photographers like Heinrich Kuehn or Hugo Erfurth composed images using fine print techniques which consciously paralleled the aesthetic ideals of painting. The child was no longer portrayed as an adult, rather, romantic and symbolic representations depicted childhood as the kingdom of harmony. In contrast, the social-documentary photographer Lewis Hine photographed children as the object of economic exploitation for the American National Child Labor Committee from 1908 to around 1918.

Since the 1920s, under the influence of “New Vision” photography,” the use of the camera became more intuitive and the visual grammar of new camera perspectives and cropping developed. Photographers such as Paul Citroen, Raoul Hausmann, Aenne Biermann and Annelise Kretschmer describe children as spontaneous, emotional individuals. Child portraits were also made to have political components, such as in the work of Alexander Rodchenko, whose images could be read as providing a positive view for the aspirations of socialism.

In Germany, the formal child portraits of August Sander from the 1950s represent the desire for continuity of familiar values in an ordered society. This generation, born in the post-war period, sought for itself new structures for life and education for children. An important documenter of this time period was Michael Ruetz in his photojournalistic depictions of alternative life styles at the begin of the 60s generation.

Childhood is also a time for the practice of future societal roles. This is the theme of Lisette Model’s image “Teenage Beauties.” However, the playful aspect found here is lost in adolescence, giving way to a phase in the confrontation with personal identity. The young people photographed by Michael Schmidt in the 1980s open themselves much less spontaneously to the camera.

Artists respond in a myriad of ways to the “disappearance of childhood” (Neil Postman) in a society grown increasingly complex, and influenced more and more by new media forms. Personal photographs or found images from printed media and television are composed into new images and at times combined with text fragments, indicating the increasing complexity and influence of the “second reality” – the media – upon the perception of our lives. Jochen Gerz, for example, creates an “open” story in his text/photo work dealing with a beauty competition for youth. By means of painterly techniques, Astrid Klein makes in her work an associative space for young people’s dreams of the future.

That the concept of childhood as a state of paradise is actually a dream of adults is demonstrated by the work of Achim Lippoth, Rodolf Bonvie and Christian Boltanski. Achim Lippoth documents in his colour photographs the strict drill of Chinese child gymnasts, whose childhood resembles rather a military training ground, whereas Rudolf Bonvie definitively destroys the idea of paradise in his work “How Murderers look Today.” Images from sensational newspapers of children become murderers are combined with a mirror mounted into the picture, allowing the viewer to become an integral part of the work. Christian Boltanski’s series “Children seek their parents” refers to the German post-war era. This installation, using archival boxes labeled with photographs of children who lost their parents in the chaos of war, is both a memorial and a search for roots. Boltanski places in this piece the question of the child’s future, bringing himself into relationship with them: “I should like to find them again. They are about my own age, and their history is similar in some ways to mine, to ours. We, too, are in search of our parents.”