Through a Lens, Darkly

KID-IN web-magazine, mai 2012, NY, USA. INTERVIEW

Le Printemps, 2010, série Allégories © Cécile Decorniquet, Photographe
Cécile Decorniquet Studio

Cecile Decorniquet’s supremely art directed, couture oriented kids-portraits stylishly dismiss popular clichés regarding childhood.

The images offer a darker but more honest version of our past experiences, one that incorporates the gravity that existed alongside the levity, the phantasmagoric that lurked beneath the fantastical. They render youth as something more complex; validated by our truest memories while repudiated in popular media’s glossy portrayals.

Ultimately, however, it is something that emanates from deep within Decorniquet’s subjects; an uncanny sideways glance from the soul – that is consistently captured and which imparts the most dynamic understanding of childhood and of ourselves.

For, where better a place than in the inherently candid gaze of a child should we begin to address questions of image and identity?
 

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Why do you photograph children?

Photographing children comes naturally. What interests me is letting go of the image that we project onto others. This is the type of abandonment that I search for in my models – something inherent in children. They’re less conscious of image, so, less inclined to control theirs. The globally held image of children is controlled and stereotyped: happy, playful, innocent. My memories do not correspond with this. If this is one reality, childhood isn’t limited to it. Children are also not just as-of-yet undeveloped adults, they’re much more complete than the limitations we ascribe them. I hope to portray this through my work.

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Suite de l'interview sur :
KID-IN web-magazine, mai 2012, NY, USA