Kids, but not as we know them

Loretta Lux's much sought-after photographs may look like portraits, but they're not intended as such. Despite choosing her friends' kids as her sitters, Lux uses them impersonally - as mysterious symbols rather than individuals. In fact, she does everything she can to remove any nuance of their own character. She dresses them in retro clothes, has them pose with rigid self-assurance and digitally enhances their appearance with painterly precision, enlarging their heads and giving them wide eyes, blank expressions and oddly translucent skin. The overall effect is of angelic little beings that seem scarcely human in their beauty and impassivity. They're children, certainly, but not as we know them.

Holly Kyte

Images courtesy of Yossi Milo gallery
Part of the All The More Real exhibition at The Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York, until October 14