A young boy stands silently in a vast and nameless scene of small stones and distant mountains. A grey sky floats still above him as his blue raincoat, matched only by his glossy eyes, offer the most color in his deserted world. The blonde child looks intensively off into the distance, but not at you. He is an unknown child, in an unknown place, with unknown thoughts. This mystery, Boy in a Blue Raincoat, is one of Loretta Lux’s many young subjects depicted in her digitally manipulated photographs. Lux, a German born painter turned surrealist digital artist, offers insight to the unknown and forgotten world of childhood in her photographs.
Loretta Lux photographs children in a dynamic manner, which enables her art to be executed in the very controlled environment of digital editing. By combining photos taken from portrait sittings with personal paintings and photographed backgrounds, Lux is able to create an alternate reality that may be all too real to the subjects of her work.
Loretta Lux ‘s work discusses the vast realms of childhood. As Carolyn Sayre states in her article in Time Magazine, “Lux’s Starkly pale, prepubescent subjects haunt the viewer from inside the image as if they were hiding some terrible secret.” Lux’s models are seemingly perfect examples of childhood in terms of innocence, dress and appearance. However, the mixture of the almost too pastel lighting (which Prose describes as post nuclear), unknown backgrounds, and distant looks in the faces of her models contrast the images of smiles and popsicles that the idea of Childhood would normally evoke. In her essay, “Imaginary Portraits”, Francine Prose says, “part of what is artful about these photos is the sly intelligence with which they raise unanswerable questions and refer us back to the emotional rather than then cerebral” (9). Lux’s art not only offers the viewer an interesting and striking image, but also an emotional connection with a child, perhaps their former selves, in a manner that engages and mystifies. The artist aids this connection with blatant titles such as The Rose Garden and The Drummer in order to allow her viewers to think critically as well as personally about the children and situations that are depicted.
As an individual and artist fascinated by the world of childhood, Lux’s work provides an interesting and exciting take on the idea of life as a child. Her work is both aesthetically sound, yet remarkably thought provoking and engaging. Not only does she capture the unknown essence of childhood, but also the secrets of humanity in general as it pertains to identity, reality and the transition from childhood to adulthood.
Bibliography
Prose, Francine. “Imaginary Portrait”. Loretta Lux. New York: Aperture Foundation,
2005.
Sayer, Carolyn. “Loretta Lux”. Time. Online. Accessed 10/14/10.
