1,000 Words: stories behind the pictures

Krista Steinke's "Backyards, BB Guns and Nursery Rhymes" deals with the scary side of childhood fun. I've always been troubled by how incredibly violent so many children's stories and songs are -- what with kids being nearly eaten by wolves or witches, abandoned in a forest, and all. Krista was kind enough to answer some questions about her projects.

LH: What led you to do this type of project?

KS: "Backyards BB Guns and Nursery Rhymes" was inspired by my experience of being a new mother. This series explores memory, cultural conditioning, and the role of the artist, the subject, and the viewer in interpreting experience and assigning meaning. The work is intended to be dreamscape, sociological document, biographical musing, theater, and post-modern searching, all at once.

"Although my background is in photography, prior to this series, I was working primarily in video and mixed media. After my daughter was born, like any new enthusiastic parent, I took up photography again and found myself falling back in love with the process of making images. I also became interested in how unself-conscious a child is in front of the camera and the uncanny, impulsive gestures and expressions that one can capture in the photographs of children.

"Conceptually, the original idea for the series came while reading classic storybooks such as The Real Mother Goose and The Grimes Brothers Fairy Tales to my two year old. As you mentioned, it also felt strange to me, reading tales of violence, rape, and murder to an impressionable young child. I was reminded that many nursery rhymes and fairytales were designed to teach morals and values in order to help children confront internal conflicts such as the struggle between right and wrong. I wanted to use these familiar literary references as a point of departure to explore the darker, mysterious side of childhood. The images are also intended as visual metaphors that stir up fear, anxiety, or desire in order to reveal uncomfortable truths about the human experience.

"The nature of innocence is an obvious theme throughout this work. Although the work is not directly autobiographical, many of the images are inspired by my own childhood. While observing my young daughter, memories from my past experience are often triggered. Already at the age of 2, a person’s personality is developing as she makes decisions, interacts with others, and learns the difference between good and bad. It is through play and imagination that a child understands who they are and tries to find her place in this world. As a new mother, I am constantly reminded and warned that childhood is the one stage in life that leaves a profound, lasting impression on us as adults. During my own upbringing, I clearly remember not being a perfect angel and in fact, some of my most vivid memories are those moments when I was not. These were not the moments from big events such as birthdays or the first day of school, but instead, strange, private moments when my interaction with the world made a poignant impact on me."

LH: It seems to me that "until there were none," in contrast, deals with the imaginary fears of parents, rather than those of children. Images like the legs of an abandoned doll behind a pillar suggest that something menacing happened to the child.

KS: "For the series “until there were none”, I was given the opportunity to photograph in an old, office space in the legendary Bethlehem Steel complex. As I explored the site, the place felt peculiar and ominous but somehow familiar. Each room with its unusual mix of fluorescent and natural light spilling over debris, torn curtains, empty boxes, and uninhabited furniture, was like a gloomy dreamscape or a scene from a hazy memory. Because I was in the middle of working on the “Backyards” series at the time, my thoughts were very focused on the theme of childhood. The space seemed like the perfect setting where children might be tempted to play but would never dare to explore alone. It was like a post-apocalyptic never-never land, completely abandoned."

"Abandonment and isolation are two of the greatest fears in both parents and children. Again, as a new mother, I witness this daily as my two year old suffers from separation anxiety everytime I leave the room. In keeping step with my other series, it is also a common theme found in fairy tales, myths, and archetypal stories. This fear, introduced to us early in life, never really leaves us as adults; we simply get better at disguising it and tucking it away deep inside our subconscious. The images of discarded old toys placed in the desolate setting are meant to echo those interior places leftover from childhood which are strange and daunting but oddly familiar."

LH: How tightly do you stage these images? How do you direct the children to create disturbing images without freaking them out?

KS: "In order to imitate the fantasy world of a child, my images are designed to sit on the cusp between reality and fiction. For this series, I chose the location and props and then invited the children to interact, unrehearsed, in the prearranged environment. I like to consider this work collaboration between the models and myself or a documentation of an impromptu performance. Some children needed more directing than others. I find the younger ones are more intuitive, curious, and animated in front of the camera. While the older ones wanted or needed more direction, they often had good suggestions or ideas on how to create the shot. The children that I worked with were eager to participate and my favorite images are the ones in which the child’s personality is revealed or the young model contributed something from their own imagination. They enjoyed acting out the theatrical, make-believe roles in the photographs, which at times read as “disturbing”, especially when there are masks involved. How do their parents feel about the “disturbing” quality in my images? That is another question altogether.

"One of my favorite behind-the-scene stories from this series is from the image “the apples grew ripe and fell far from the tree”. On one particular shoot, my model threw a rock and broke a window in a neighbor’s house. Unfortunately, I missed this because I was busy loading film in my camera, but it is the exact type of behavior that I sought to capture in my images. I decided to try another photo shoot inspired by this event which would involve the same boy throwing apples at a house. This time, as I prepared my equipment, I gave the young boy the job of arranging apples on the porch. As I got my camera together, I turned around and there was the boy smashing apples with a hammer. In an instant, I got my shot without any further directing. What made this image even more intriguing is that the older sister was sent along as a chaperone to make sure no more rocks were thrown. She became the cropped, blurred figure standing in the foreground. The final image came out very different but much better than I originally planned.