John & Hopper

Loretta Lux was born in Dresden in 1969 when it was still part of the DDR. A few months prior to the fall of the Berlin wall, she moved to Monaco where she started studying painting. It’s her work in painting that mostly explains the visual impact of her photos, already part of prestigious collections. More details on the artist and her biography on Wikipedia.  

The Rose Garden, The Fish

Loretta Lux’s children stand, dress and act like adults. They never sit in a comfortable environment, these places are mostly empty and at times desolate. They have big eyes and they never look innocent, their bodies are macrocephalic with imperceptible disproportions created by the digital retouching of the pictures.  Iconic figures of a trip backwards inside the child that we used to be. The artist manipulates the pictures of her baby models, usually children of his friends, covering them with an ethereal and disturbing filter, made subliminal by pastel tones and an unsettling candour. A childhood made of gelatine portraits that look artificially perfect, express a formal obsession that becomes a provocation, making those who are looking at it uneasy and anxious in return.

The Drummer

Loretta Lux’s children have a sort of innocence that looks like the embryonic stage of the formation of an individual and exposes children’s vulnerability in a world of adults. The adult world is absent in the pictures of the German artist, but at the same time very present, intrusive, morbid, ferocious and violent.

Until the 31st of October, 2010 at the Carla Sozzani Gallery in Milan (www.galleriacarlasozzani.org)

Text by Giuliano Federico

Source: lorettalux.de –