F

Flavorwire

Kids

Photography

Jan von Holleben’s Delightfully Magical Photos of Kids as Classic Heroes

By Emily Temple on

Berlin-based photographer Jan von Holleben doesn’t go in for all that cutesy child photography stuff. The typical babies-as-flowers style, he tells Wired, “cater[s] to a certain kind of people who romanticize childhood and who want to have it in a safe bubble.” Instead, Von Holleben’s work captures kids in magical, adventurous scenes, all created without Photoshop — instead, his subjects help him create the set, and then lie on the ground in their poses while Von Holleben shoots them from above. After the jump, check out Action Heroes, one of our favorite series from Von Holleben’s work in this style, and then head on over to the photographer’s website to see much more. … Read More

Photography

Adorable Portraits of Children Channeling Famous Film Characters

By Emily Temple on

What did Jack Sparrow look like as a child? Knowing him, we bet almost exactly the same — beard, dreads and all. Well, actually, probably not, of course, but that’s the fun of this adorable photo series, which dresses up children as famous film characters, from Captain Sparrow to Cruella de Vil to Forrest Gump. The images, which we spotted over at PetaPixel, were created by Brazilian ad agency Globalcomm to promote a new movie theater that opened up in Praia de Belas, a shopping mall in Porto Alegre. While they don’t particularly make us want to go to the mall, they do make us want to re-watch some of our favorite films (and imagine the characters with baby faces). Click through to check out the super cute photos, and let us know which one is your favorite in the comments. … Read More

Books

Adorable Vintage Photos of Kids Reading

By Emily Temple on

We don’t know about you, but many of our most cherished memoires of childhood come from spending an afternoon with a book in hand — and perhaps relatedly, many of our most cherished reading experiences come from childhood. It just seems that everything is so much more captivating when you’re a kid — things are newer, images and characters are more likely to send one off down an endless rabbit hole of imagination, and hey, what else do you have to do with your time? In a fit of nostalgia, we scoured the interwebs for awesome vintage photographs of children reading everything from comic books to newspapers to novels, whether alone or with friends, in school or on the sidewalk. Leaf through our mini collection of vintage photos of kids engaged in our favorite activity after the jump, and if you are so moved, leave your own childhood memoires of reading in the comments. … Read More

Photography

Photos of Brave Kids Before and After Dental Procedures

By Marina Galperina on

“Is this real life?” Maybe you laughed a little too hard at the “David After Dentist” video, watching the kid wallow through his first intoxication. Maybe you remember being terrified at the dentist’s office after getting a tooth pulled, drooling and bleeding, truly thankful that you survived. Well, we all experience childhood dentistry differently. UK-based photographer Andy Brown captured the fearless ones. Check out his dual portraits of kids smiling before their procedures and recovering from general anaesthetic after. The Being Brave series was shot during an Arts Council-funded documentation of the Children’s Hospital in Sheffield, where Brown shot moving photography essays about young chemotherapy patients. Check out the series spotted by It’s Nice That in our gallery. … Read More

Music

Adorable British Children Review Radiohead’s ‘Paranoid Android’

By Emily Temple on

You might think Radiohead is one of those universal bands — even people who don’t really like them at least appreciate them. But kids are a whole different story. In this highly adorable video from Noisey, a gaggle of British children listen to Paranoid Android and then give their takes, including how much they would pay for a Radiohead album — three, four, or ten hundred pounds. The video is filled with hard-hitting criticism like “I don’t think he’s got any friends” and “loud or quiet, make your mind up” and “I don’t like it when he sings really high — really high, like a girl.” All of which is fine and actually rather astute — though we think the statement “I think N-Dubz are better than Radiohead” deserves a time-out. Click through to watch, and let us know what you think in the comments. … Read More

Music

10 of the Best Indie Rock Film Soundtracks

By Tom Hawking on

We were interested (and not a little taken aback, to be honest) to see that Sigur Rós singer Jónsi was providing the soundtrack to new Cameron Crowe film We Bought a Zoo. Of course, he’s not exactly the first indie type to tackle soundtracking duties for a film — there have been a slew of such records over the last few years in particular, from Karen O’s exuberantly overblown score for Where the Wild Things Are to the all-star soundtracks that accompanied the Twilight films. And while those are both worthy albums in their own right (as, indeed, is Jónsi’s work on We Bought a Zoo), neither quite squeeze their way onto a list of our all-time favorite indie music-centric film soundtracks. What does make the cut? The answers await you after the jump, dear reader — and, as ever, let us know what your choices are. … Read More

Pop Culture

Kids’ Halloween Costumes That They’re Too Young to Understand

By Jennifer Lewis on

Do you know a kid? Does that kid need a Halloween costume? Are you cool with casually exploiting said kid for your own trick-or-treat amusement? Take a break from the princess and superhero aisles at your local holiday superstore and consider these silly costumes that are meant to make grownups chuckle. True, these outfits might go right over the wearers’ kiddie heads, but who wouldn’t love finding a tiny Mr. T or a baby Bob Ross at their doorstep? We wish we could give these youngsters’ parents high fives. Enjoy some adorably mini versions of grown-up pop culture figures after the jump. … Read More

Film

10 of Cinema’s Most Unpleasant Movies Still Worth Your Time

By Alison Nastasi on

Talented songwriter, character actor, and horror/exploitation icon David Hess passed away over the weekend. “The Mad Hessian” was a brooding and familiar face in dozens of nasty genre titles that depicted rape and torture — his most memorable role being the violent and vile gang leader in Wes Craven’s Last House on the Left. The 1972 film is a gruesome meditation on the evil inherent in all of humanity, presenting an unflinchingly brutal portrait of depraved indifference in Craven’s rough-cut first feature. The virtues of Hess’ filmography are often obscured by their repute, but Last House and other films contained more thematically complex ideas than the gory savagery hinted at by their premises. This got us thinking about other films that are difficult to watch, but worthwhile — challenging, but not merely gratuitous. With that, here are ten cringe-worthy titles that are still absolutely worth your time. … Read More

Art

Art That Sees the World Through a Child’s Eyes

By Jill Harness on

We all remember how mysterious life was back when we were children. It makes sense — when you don’t understand how things work, it’s only natural to make up your own explanations. That’s why Pierette Diaz’s art is just so fun.

While we love her style, it’s the perfect way that she captures the imagination of a child that make her artwork so wonderful. From baby apartments in a mother’s belly to dragons heating the food in the oven, Diaz’s art helps us remember how we thought the world worked when we were too young to know any better. … Read More

Photography

Photo Gallery: A Girl and Her Animals

By Caroline Stanley on

You know what they say about never working with animals or children? Or mixing work with family? New Jersey-based photographer Robin Schwartz flies in the face of conventional wisdom with an otherworldly series of portraits of her daughter interacting with a wide range of animals — from the usual suspects, like dogs and cats, to more exotic specimens, like camels and elephants.

“I photograph myself with animals through Amelia,” Schwartz has explained. “I am an only child who has an only child. Each of us has a strong fantasy world. Amelia and I play out our eccentricities in worlds where she and animals not only co-exist, but also interact. Animals are not props in my photographs and they are not photo-shopped in. The world that my daughter and I explore is one where the line between human and animal overlaps or is blurred.”

Click through to view some of our favorite shots, and if you like what you see, pick up Amelia’s World, a lovely monograph which features an essay by Francine Prose. … Read More