Loretta Lux [Hardcover]

Loretta Lux (Photographer), Francine Prose (Contributor)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 15, 2005

Though the sense of realism in German photographer Loretta Lux's striking portraits of children remains eerily intact, Lux does not strive to create faithful photographic representations of her young subjects. Instead, each image--invariably comprised of a lone child in a sparse landscape--is painstakingly composed and manipulated to create psychically charged explorations of the nature of childhood and the process of self-discovery. Originally trained as a painter, Lux continues to draw influence from paintings by Old Masters such as Velasquez, Goya, and Runge. This influence is especially apparent in Lux's compositions. After carefully choosing the models, costumes, and backdrops--sometimes using her own paintings--she digitally combines and enhances each element to form meticulously structured tableaux. The consistently forlorn expressions of her models combined with the hyperreality of the image create portraits that transcend their subjects and remind us that childhood is as chaotic and multidimensional as any other part of life.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

German artist Lux combines painting, photography and digital imagery to create disturbing, fairy tale-like portraits of children. In this sleek collection of 45 portraits, Lux superimposes photographs of her young models, many sporting vintage clothes and hairstyles, onto imaginary backgrounds of painted clouds or rose gardens. As essayist Prose explains, the portraits do not capture the reality of childhood; instead, they communicate something "about the world that children live in, about the way adults see them." The children's faces, all unsettlingly expressionless, are like those of porcelain dolls, frozen pale pink with blushed cheeks. Most of the models stare straight at the camera, their glassy eyes penetrating the reader, but even more intriguing are the photos in which the children are looking elsewhere, focused on something that no longer exists. At first glance, the children look flawless, almost too perfect to be real, but viewers captivated by their beauty will soon take notice of discomforting subtleties, like the stains on the girl's jacket in "Marianne," or the girl's bandaged and bruised knees in "Study of a Girl 1." "Like every child, the children in these pictures have secrets from the adult world, secrets more urgent and real to them than the reality around them," Prose writes, and it is this disparity between the secretive and the superficial worlds that makes these photographs so captivating.
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From Booklist

Apparently inspired by the child portraiture of Velazquez, German artist Lux produces eerily composed photo portraits of children. She poses her subjects, dressed in costumes of her selection, against a blank backdrop. Later she digitally places them in landscapes and barren rooms culled from other photographs. Characteristically, the colors of a child's clothes match or nearly match those of the backgrounds, and all are pale as the children's skin. The children never smile; rarely do their eyes gaze directly out, more rarely do they suggest communication. Seemingly floating before rather than inhabiting the settings, they are to be appreciated strictly for what they are, like the little royalty and aristocrats in old paintings. In the introductory essay, Francine Prose says just about everything that needs to be said to enrich viewing the portraits, but she doesn't notice the album's single image of an adult: a young man with a shotgun, dressed in camouflage and kneeling beside a dog, whose anomalous presence encourages leafing through the book again and again to figure out how he fits. Ray Olson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Aperture (June 15, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1931788545
• ISBN-13: 978-1931788540
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #801,047 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unique and haunting images, June 20, 2005

By 

Chris R. Richards "tophermn" (new york, ny) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Loretta Lux (Hardcover)

Lux's first monograph is highly original and challenging to its viewers. The children in these 45 images will haunt anyone who views them and provoke you to view the children around you in a new light. Lux was a trained as a painter and each image takes her months to compose from the painted elements in the backdrops to the alterations in color and shape she makes within the photographs themselves. The result are images that make the viewer reflect both on childhood and on the act of viewing something outside ourselves. How often do we actually look at children directly that are not are own? How self aware are the children around us or how well do they understand the world around them? The pictures taunt and elude are perceptions. At first the children seem too photoshopped and perfect - like an adult's idealized view of childhood. Then your eye notices bruises on the child's body, eyes unnaturally large, or a bandaid covering a knee cut. The myth of the perfect child living in an edenic world is violated and the viewer is left in an uneasy place. These strange images are ones that will stick with viewers beyond their first impressions and Lux has a bright future in the art world.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting set of artistic images, June 7, 2005

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Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Loretta Lux (Hardcover)

Loretta Lux's first monograph packs in 45 portraits, but this is no recap from prior publishings; over half have never been published before. You'll find the German photographer's imaginary portraits of children to be both haunting and chilling. Her kids are rarely smiling - indeed, they face the world with a seriousness not usually seen in portraits of kids seemingly middle-class or more in society. A haunting set of artistic images for any interested in portraits and photos of children.

13 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Intriguing work that may wear out its welcome, August 19, 2005

By 

Geoffrey P. Smith "opusposthum" (ATLANTA, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Loretta Lux (Hardcover)

The portraits are quite startling, and technically dazzling. However there is little empathy with the children apparent to this eye, and the results are a bit chilly. I'll be interested to see how often I return to muse over these photographs.Reservations aside, this is provocative new work, and a good addition to a collection of contemporary photo monographs . The book's production is excellent.