CHILDREN by Olivier Suter

A collection of works by Olivier Suter, an artist and art educator based in Switzerland. The photographs in this book span various eras, as can be seen from the differences in portrait styles and techniques. Looking at the photographs of children, alone or with their fathers, mothers, siblings, or friends, one might wonder why they were included in this collection. As you turn the pages, you begin to realize that these are the childhood faces of famous and unknown people, from future writers and mathematical geniuses to even dictators. Once you notice this, you can't help but imagine their future selves from the features and expressions on the children's faces. Could this sleepy child have become Jimi Hendrix? Is the boy looking disgruntled among his classmates the future Arthur Rimbaud? Is this Angela Merkel as a child? And is this Al Capone in his mischievous youth? Is this dapper little boy really a mini-sized Pope Francis? That energetic child, is it Osama bin Laden!? You're sure to make some surprising discoveries. The pseudo-sciences of physiognomy, like the 17th-century Charles Le Brun's belief that one could understand a person's character and mental traits from their facial features, and phrenology, which the Belgian colonial rulers used in the 1930s to classify the Tutsi and Hutu by the size and shape of their skulls, are now relics of the past, and any sensible person would immediately deny the idea of differences based on race. Looking at the faces of the children in this book, you can see how nonsensical the idea is that you can tell a person's fate just by looking at their face, whether they are a child or an adult. We look at dozens of young faces, no different from children anywhere in the world, presented by the author, and knowing what they became as adults, we can only be amused and surprised.

I have kept it with care, but I am selling it to organize my belongings.