Introducing René & Radka as featured in I don’t really know what kind of girl I am. curated by Jody Quon.
 
 

 
The work of RENÉ & RADKA is like stepping into an impeccably styled children’s fairy tale. It’s the moody, mysterious lighting, the primary colors, and the expression on the children’s faces themselves. These kids look like clever little grown-ups, posed on chairs or standing at the mouth of a maze. It’s the perfect combination of sweet and sinister, reminiscent of an Andrew Wyeth painting.
 
“We love to photograph children for their pure energy,” René says. “Adults always have the tendency to play someone else. It comes from the accumulation of things we collect in life that causes us to build a protection shield. Children don’t do this yet, and are simply unaffected and spontaneous.”
 
Coming from an editorial and commercial fashion background, René & Radka’s eye is unexpected. “We don’t consider children to be smiley, happy, jumping around, cute things,” René explains, adding, “and not mini adults either. In our photography we try to look at the different dimensions of a child’s world—a world of dreams, fairy tales, magic, and sometimes fear. We return all the time to this feeling because it is an endless source of inspiration. There are so many things about children that we would love to express in our photography work!”
 
René continues about what René & Radka hope to achieve with their imagery. “We would love to make people dream, and take them away, even for a small moment, from their everyday routine. It sounds probably like a cliché, but it’s important to us. We would love to inspire adults to think differently and deeper about the kids world, share their creativity, learn from them.
 
“Especially fascinating for us is to work with children underwater,” René says, referencing their series, Under Water. “This element is so magic and enigmatic. To shoot underwater deactivates the need for control and manipulation. When we work in fashion or advertising, we can calculate every single detail. With children underwater, we have absolutely no chance to affect the final shot. The only thing we can control is the technical part. We communicate our feeling or vision (not always easy!) to the children and try to delegate our thoughts. The final result is a surprise, a feeling we were missing in fashion photography for a long time.”
 
—Tami Mnoian