Children are the focus of Loretta Lux’s contemporary photographs. Originally trained as a painter, Lux creates digitally manipulated portraits that emphasize the strange and unsettling aspects of childhood and make her sitters appear either very young or venerable and wise beyond their years. By slightly distorting the size of the children’s heads and bodies, emphasizing their pale skin and pastel clothing, and focusing on their often somber expressions, the artist makes it clear that her photographs are anything but straightforward likenesses. In fact, Lux refers to them as “imaginary portraits” and claims that their disquieting appearance is meant to reflect the mysterious blend of vulnerability and self-awareness so characteristic of youth. (http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/dorothea-445281)