Each generation is born into the shadow of the previous one, but far from helpless victims of circumstance, young people wield the possibility for change; children's minds are boundless and constantly inventing. Researchers in child psychology have identified the 'paracosm' as a particularly intense example of this, it refers to an intricate imaginary world a child has created and regularly revisits and builds on. Not simply escapism, this ability points to an imaginative power to see this world anew, to renegotiate our relationship to the earth.
As well as addressing their position in the natural built environment, the series questions how we choose to represent children in photography. From advertising to family portraits we tend to place and manipulate them into our own ideal of 'childhood', but how comfortably can individuals fit into these predefined roles? Perhaps the unusual context in which I have depicted these young people is really no stranger than our established everyday norms. Although arranged in a traditionally subordinate pose, I hope that imagination and different perspective has imbued them with strength. From their apparently weak position they nonetheless stand before us, questioning and defying our cynical gravity.
These images were created during a residency in the Republic of Ireland in 2006.
Clare Samuel is a Northern Irish artist living in Canada. She completed her BFA with honours in Photography at Ryerson University, and is now studying MFA Studio Arts at Concordia University in Montreal. Concordia University in Montreal. She has exhibited in solo and group shows in Canada, Scotland and the Republic of Ireland, and participated in international residencys in Germany, Ireland and Canada. Her work tends to deal with themes of borders, between people or places, and the concept of belonging.