Pictures of innocence: the history and crisis of ideal childhood

Abstract

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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