Photographs of Children's Drawings

January 29, 2008 8:20 PM

Wonderland is a series by Yeon Doo Jung which takes drawings done by children, and re-photographs them in the real world. The results of this interpretation are, um, hilarious. Use the green arrows for navigating from photo to photo.

"...The power of a child's imagination is how it delicately refigures memory and real imagery into unreasonable and unexpected expressions and impressions. Children's fantasies spring from flexible interpretations of adult conventions. The challenge of photographically reconstructing these fantasies may reflect Jung's challenge of becoming a father in real life. It is not hard to imagine that he is inspired by the limitless imaginative power of the child playing before his eyes. This makes even more sense in light of Kristeva's comment that the child is the "mythical figure" of the imaginary. The adolescents who play-act for Jung take on the adult forms of their drawn figures, but with adolescent minds, and thus visually realize the fusion of fantasy and reality. These are works that gaze upon the world of adult reason with the pure, unsullied eyes of a child. Balanced between reality and fantasy, the deformed cartoonish world in "Wonderland" sways our values and beliefs."

- from his website, author unknown.

Vaguely inspired by tableau-vivant. Also, a related FPP about the similar concept of artists redrawing children's drawings of Winnie-the-Pooh. (Link within FPP is down, however)

posted by suedehead (27 comments total)

Heee. I love this. Thanks.
posted by papakwanz at 8:26 PM on January 29, 2008

This is great. Very entertaining. Sometimes I had to squint to see how they came up with the photographic interpretation, but that just made it more fun!
posted by aclevername at 8:35 PM on January 29, 2008

I wish people actually dressed like that.
posted by Astro Zombie at 8:45 PM on January 29, 2008

Heh heh. Outstanding.
posted by BlackLeotardFront at 8:45 PM on January 29, 2008

These are absolutely delightful.

I love how, the world over, kids' drawings look similar.
posted by sugarfish at 8:46 PM on January 29, 2008

Excellent :)
posted by doctor_negative at 8:50 PM on January 29, 2008

The "bewitched" gallery on the artists site is also quite fun in a magical sort of way.
posted by cazoo at 8:52 PM on January 29, 2008

"The magician turned the whale into a flower", is this a kids interpretation of THGTTG movie, or just some weird coincidence?
posted by Dr. Curare at 9:19 PM on January 29, 2008

TV is so funny LOL LOL LOL
posted by parmanparman at 10:02 PM on January 29, 2008

Very neat! Thanks.
posted by pravit at 10:13 PM on January 29, 2008

[I LIKE]
posted by ericb at 10:19 PM on January 29, 2008

that is so beautiful.
posted by subaruwrx at 10:37 PM on January 29, 2008

Reminds me of fake contest I saw in Mad Magazine a long time ago, where children drew their ideal toy and mad magazine made per-spec models.
posted by Citizen Premier at 11:11 PM on January 29, 2008

We took it down. What's there now is a registrar "traffic" warning in Japanese.
posted by dhartung at 11:31 PM on January 29, 2008

Good stuff (and the site's up again).
posted by Joseph Gurl at 12:20 AM on January 30, 2008

The wedding is the best.
posted by dabitch at 12:36 AM on January 30, 2008

very cool
posted by nangua at 12:44 AM on January 30, 2008

I'm sitting here grinning like crazy. These are so wonderful! I especially like 'afternoon nap' and 'morden wedding.' And yeah, I wish people actually dressed like this, too. (Or rather, that I got to dress like this....)
posted by one teak forest at 1:05 AM on January 30, 2008

Oh man. These are adorable. I couldn't stop grinning.
posted by Phire at 2:33 AM on January 30, 2008

Fantastic! Thanks!
posted by 2or3whiskeysodas at 3:43 AM on January 30, 2008

These are great!

Although what really makes me smile is the idea of this guy setting up these elaborate shots, putting them on display, having people come to ooh and ahh at them, and inviting the parents of the child to come see them; Mom explains to her child as best she can the photographer and the project, and one of these is your drawing! Come see!

And he or she is shown the display, hoisted up by smiling parents, only to look closely at the photograph and say "THAT'S not what I drew! Wrong wrong wrong!"
posted by Uther Bentrazor at 5:23 AM on January 30, 2008

Great. I love how everyone holds their arms up in these pictures. It's like, "am I really more ridiculous than all of you?" (Yes, I know why their arms are really like that)
posted by Laugh_track at 5:45 AM on January 30, 2008

Eeeee!
posted by Sys Rq at 5:50 AM on January 30, 2008

(Yes, it appears we may have killed the rest of the site)
posted by Sys Rq at 5:52 AM on January 30, 2008

uh...we did kill it, but that would be Hangul (Korean) on the heavy traffic page (with the stack o' green boxes.)
posted by squasha at 7:11 AM on January 30, 2008

See? This is why we can't have nice things! Stop clicking at it or you might poke an eye out!
posted by ZachsMind at 7:32 AM on January 30, 2008

It works again!
posted by suedehead at 6:57 PM on January 30, 2008