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Image by Rene & Radka, undated

Fashioning children into miniature adults is a tried-and-tested device in the Arts. Charles Dickens did it in Oliver Twist. Alan Parker did it in Bugsy Malone. And now the photographic duo Rene & Radka has done it too. Their super-stylized, technicolour images - mostly for magazine advertising campaigns - enact every little girl's favourite pastime: raiding the dressing-up box and playing grown-ups. So, trussed up like Barbie dolls, the pocket-sized models star as newsreaders, weather girls, chat show hosts and secretaries. Thankfully, though, the absurdity and incongruity of their characters, plus the over-egged retro styling, gives these pictures just enough satirical humour to preserve their innocence.

Holly Kyte 

FIRST POSTED JUNE 19, 2009
All images by Rene & Radka, courtesy the artists. Exhibition 'Dreams and Shadows – Photographs by Rene & Radka' at the Alinari National Museum of Photography, Florence, Italy until August 2, 2009.

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