The inner child comes out to play in creepily compelling photo series
posted Monday, March 18, 2013 at 9:10 PM EST
No matter our age, we share one attribute: an inner child straining to get out and enjoy life free from the constraints of adulthood. We all know it's there, but what if that child was the face we projected to others?
With a new photo series, Paris-based professional retoucher Cristian Girotto aims to provide a glimpse into that world. And it's a very strange world indeed, at once familiar and totally surreal.
Girotto's L'Enfant Extérieur series -- the title translates into English as The Outer Child -- consists of images based on adult portraits. Each has been heavily retouched for a childlike look that, says Cristian, reveals his subjects' "young core, instinctive, creative but also innocent and naïve".
The results are at once visually disturbing, and technically impressive. The child-like -- or in some cases, anime-like -- proportions and poses, coupled with gap-toothed smiles and huge eyes strike us as particularly jarring when coupled with stubble or beards.
The series so far includes 18 creepily compelling images, and more are promised in the future. While you're waiting for further unsettling additions, the rest of Girotto's portfolio is also worth a look.
(via news.com.au; images courtesy of Cristian Girotto)