Pictures of innocence : the history and crisis of ideal childhood
Author(s)
Bibliographic Information
Pictures of innocence : the history and crisis of ideal childhood
(Interplay : arts, history, theory)
Thames & Hudson, c1998
Available at 17 libraries
  Aomori
  Iwate
  Miyagi
  Akita
  Yamagata
  Fukushima
  Ibaraki
  Tochigi
  Gunma
  Saitama
  Chiba
  Tokyo
  Kanagawa
  Niigata
  Toyama
  Ishikawa
  Fukui
  Yamanashi
  Nagano
  Gifu
  Shizuoka
  Aichi
  Mie
  Shiga
  Kyoto
  Osaka
  Hyogo
  Nara
  Wakayama
  Tottori
  Shimane
  Okayama
  Hiroshima
  Yamaguchi
  Tokushima
  Kagawa
  Ehime
  Kochi
  Fukuoka
  Saga
  Nagasaki
  Kumamoto
  Oita
  Miyazaki
  Kagoshima
  Okinawa
  Korea
  China
  Thailand
  United Kingdom
  Germany
  Switzerland
  France
  Belgium
  Netherlands
  Sweden
  Norway
  United States of America
Note
Bibliographical reference: p. 227-242
Includes index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The ideal of childhood innocence is perhaps the most cherished concept of modern culture, all the more so because it seems to be under siege. This book explores the images that are at once the most common, the most sacred, and the most controversial of our time, ranging from 18th-century portraits by Sir Joshua Reynolds to greeting cards by Anne Geddes, from the ambiguous photographs of Lewis Carroll to those of Sally Mann. Anne Higonnet traces the visual history of ideal childhood from the pictorial invention of childhood innocence in 18th-century portraits to today's best-selling photography. Discussion then turns to the crisis in the ideal of childhood innocence. The uses and interpretations of photography can eroticize children as surely as the intentions of the original photographer, and these acute difficulties have provoked a dramatic reaction in the form of sweeping child pornography laws. The book ends by describing how we are presently in the midst of a radical redefinition of childhood itself, a change in cultural values inaugurated by images.
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