Portraits of Seven-Year-Olds, Céline M. van Balen, 1997 - 1999
gelatin silver print, h 603mm × w 505mm
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© Céline M. van Balen
Sitting still can be quite a challenge for most children. In the portraits of seven-year-olds that she took for the Rijksmuseum, the photographer seems to have pushed a button and stopped them in their tracks. Céline van Balen works with a camera on a tripod, which calls for careful observation and slow photography. The children neither laugh nor talk, and seem to be one with the photographer and us, the viewers. Rarely are children photographed as being so adult and restrained, and therefore so present as individuals.
