Kira and Anya Research

With being given a name and number, together with Ashleigh we rang this number to find out who the people were and find more information about our anonymous companions.

With finding out the that Kira and Anya are a 9 and 12 year old, I researched into photographers who may have at one point in their life photographed children.

Diane Arbus and Sally Mann are two that I researched into; very different photographers but both have very intriguing and inspiring images. They both have different styles and experiences to inspire from in their lives.

Sally Mann is an American photographer, best known for large black and white photographs, at first of her young children then later of landscape suggesting death and decay.

These images show her incredibly intimate and abrupt portrayal of family life. Her work has attracted controversy at times but it has always been influential.

Between 1984 and 1991 she worked on what is undoubtedly her most famous series Immediate Family 1992 which focuses on her 3 children then under 10 years.
Whilst the series touches on ordinary moment in their daily lives- playing, sleeping, eating, it also speaks to larger themes such as sexuality and death.

Diane Arbus
American photographer and writer noted for black and white square photographs of deviant and marginal people. (Dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, circus performers) or of people whose normality seems ugly or surreal.
Arbus was "afraid that she would simply be known as the photographer of freaks" however that phrase has been repeatedly used to describe her.

Identical Twins, Roselle, New Jersey (1967)- Young twin sisters Cathleen and Colleen stand side by side in dark dresses. The twin on the right slihtly smiles and twin on left slightly frowns.

Child with toy hand grenade in Central Park (1962)- With his left strap of his jumper awkwardly hanging off his shoulder tensely holds his long, thin, arms by his side. Clenching a toy grenade in his right hand and holding his left hand in a claw-like gesture, his facial expression is maniacal.

"I do feel I have some slight corner on something about the quality of things. I mean its very subtle and a little embarrassing to me, but i really believe there are things which nobody would see unless I photographed them."

Looking into these photographers gave me an insight into ways of photographing children, obviously the way that Mann or Arbus photographed is very extravagant, it sparked of ideas and ways of getting Kira and Anya just to be themselves. I felt the images needed to show them as a character, being able to show what they're like and portraying this across in the image.

When visiting them the first time I found that they both had opposite characteristic and personalities, this then was something to capture in the images.