Capturing children’s facial expressions as they watch television, photographer Wolfram Hahn’s images portray how children react to this mass medium, losing the subtle charm of real life as they fall under its influence. Their regards seem sad and lifeless, with facial expressions more to be associated with adults. What transfixes their attention, causing them to stare so fixedly at a single point yet remain so detached?
The opening reception featured photographer Wolfram Hahn and Washington, DC-based curator Al Miner.
Q. What inspired you to produce the photo series "Ein entzaubertes Kindezimmer" ("A Disenchanted Playroom") (2006)?
A. This work has its origins in an everyday situation: I saw a child watching television. Although it was just a normal scene, the child's facial expression remained fixed in my memory for a long time. After a while, it began to occupy my thoughts so much that I decided to look more carefully to see what it was that had so fascinated me, or perplexed me. Taking virtually the same perspective that I had when looking at the child before, I then set about making the portraits. Only the scenic framework was different, that is, the background and lighting. But this framework was important to draw the viewer's full attention to the children's facial expressions. I didn't want to stylize them, however, but to shown them as realistic and natural as possible; some with dirty or sweaty clothes, just back from playing, with unkempt hair and without makeup.
"In these portraits it was important to record the precise moment in which the children showed absolutely no impulse or emotion at all, when it was most obvious that they had been taken in by the television in a certain way and had abandoned themselves to it -- even when what they were watching was child oriented programming. Far from demonizing the television and its possibilities, this reveals to me how the world is dis ...More...
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