Customer Reviews

Loretta Lux

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

Ever since I saw Loretta Lux's "Boy with Drum," I've been fascinated by her work. She manages to mix photography with painting and produce works that just stay in your mind (at least in mine). Her subjects are amusing, beautiful, and even slightly subversive. Everything in the images, from the colours used, to the clothes worn, and even the backgrounds, all combine to create unforgettable pieces that take the viewer back to a time that never existed. In my mind, this book conjures up a semi-Hitchcockian dream world where children are in control.

Her pictures are incredible and truly unique (something that cannot be said of most) - you know when you are looking at a Lux. Every time I pass the book, I pick it up. And each time, I am surprised by how intrigued I still am about her work. The book is timeless... A phenomenal book! Buy this book and you will not be disappointed.

What a beautiful book. I bought it as a gift for a friend, and then could not give it away.

Miss Lux's children are hauntingly beautiful.

The price of photography books is usually prohibitive, but this was incredibly affordable and I will explore others by this publisher for my personal collection.

My review:
Each page gives you a standard portrait or a child, but something isn't quite right. The children look normal, and yet other-worldly. Their faces, heads, expressions are pleasant, yet unsettling. This is definitely a book you can return to over and over again. The color, print quality, and book build are all fantastic.
My wife's review:
This book is creepy. Get it away from me.

loretta lux is a stunning photographer with a sharp critical eye. from the first time i saw her work 8 years ago, it has stayed with me. her book truly captures the intensity and clarity of her images, which stay with you, even haunt you.
her work is simply incredible and truly stands out as a unique voice, and not just for the sake of being different, as is much of the work of contemporary young artists. her vision is singular and with purpose and graceful technique.

This is a stunning collection of beautiful images that inhabit a no man's land between photography and painting. Lux's images are weirdly nostalgic but at the same time remote and impenetrable. Perhaps the highest praise that you could give a collection of photographs is that they're like not like anything you've ever seen before and that was certainly true of this collection for me. This is an essential addition to any serious collection of art photography books.

Ultimately beautiful and unsettling, this book contains a collection of highly stylized and manipulated photographs that are deceptively simple.

This is only one of many paradoxes that this series of photographs seems to straddle.

It is nostalgic and modern
It is familiar and fresh.
It is modest and complex.
It is frank and secretive.
It is austere and playful.

Published by Aperture, the printing is flawless. The reproductions are arresting and I don't doubt that only the real prints can trump them.

The only two adults featured in this book are Loretta Lux and The Hunter. The other portraits are of children--an oft featured subject matter of many photographers; But whereas others before her dress kids up like bumble bees and/or sunflowers, Lux chooses to posit an altogether different assessment of children and childhood.

To be sure, there is nothing "cute" about this book. That, in and of itself, is an impressive feat as overly saccharine and trite photos of children run rampant. The word "cute" never even crossed my mind.

Interesting indeed: they say that a picture is worth a thousand words but these images evoke a quietude that transcends.

Simply said: Lux leaves the viewer quite without words. Utterly. Speechless.

Beautiful mysterious odd photos of a lost unreal childhood. Really well done repoductions and an inspriation to artists and viewers.