tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-76471633049992099292024-03-05T05:06:32.557-08:00The Shrinking Horizons of ChildhoodThe Project “The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood” is a project that asks the question 'Do children need nature anymore?' Irish photographer Mike O’Toole was inspired to develop the project after reading an account by Reins Michels, former Dutch football coach, about how he saw a family pull up their car near woods in Holland. The dog immediately ran out of the car but the children stayed put. They did not recognize the woods as a place of play, of freedom or adventure. friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-85822432585340427062014-04-27T04:16:00.002-07:002014-04-27T04:28:12.512-07:00My New Book<h2>
<i><span style="color: orange;">The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood</span></i> refers to the idea that children are spending less time outside exploring the natural world due to safety fears, increasing urbanization and computers and phones commanding their attention. Richard Louve an American writer and campaigner for the outdoors coined the phrase “Nature Deficit” </h2>
Like most parents I worry about how much time my children spend indoors, using technology and I worry about decreasing levels of exercise and about health issues such as obesity and Hyper-stimulation in Childhood. Apart from the dangers for children outside, children themselves are being seen as a ʻthreatʼ to society by playing football in the streets or simply being out and about.<br />
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We bring adult ideas of how children should be, control their activities and over schedule their lives to the extent that their is little agency or autonomy for children themselves, in short we donʼt trust children.We keep them “safe” in their glass boxes like exotic birds from the Rainforest. One child told me that nature outside doesn't look as colourful as it does on the TV and that everything outside is to far away.<br />
It took me a long while to find a visual vocabulary for it as I want to avoid the look of typical children's charities and somehow bring the outdoors inside , so I hit on the idea of reflections and windows in the end.The problem with reflections is, even if you can eliminate yourself, that you can't see anything inside and as I didn't want the commercial look of flash photography , I needed to find windows with someone outside to reflect and also the right moment when I would get some low sunlight. What's interesting is the children are both alone indoors but connected to the world with their phones and screens. Shot on my Medium format RZ67 Camera with Colour negative film. <br />
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<span style="color: orange;">MIKE O'TOOLE Photographer, Director, Lecturer, Coach </span><br />
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The Book project is part of a series of books called 'Where We Are' Just Released, Limited copies.<br /><a class="twitter-timeline-link pretty-link" href="http://www.whereweare.ie/" role="presentation"><b>http://www.whereweare.ie/</b></a>friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-78687825978181081822012-03-16T08:34:00.000-07:002014-04-27T05:13:46.482-07:00The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood<br />
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“The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood” <br />
Mike O’Toole<br />
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O’Toole questions the role of nature as a traditional place of sanctuary or as a place to find relaxation, when today the new sanctuary is the indoors, where children watch TV or computer screens. The new “Ideal environment” is now the indoors and the virtual, with the result that more and more children understand the natural world only through computer games, the internet and TV. In the developed world, children are becoming more detached from their own environment. In this series we see children alone, either cut off from the outside, or in an awkward embrace with the outdoors. <br />
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O’Toole photographed his own children and children of his neighbours and extended family. In most of the photographs the children are presented as “safe” in their glass boxes, like exotic birds from the rainforest. Although the environment is no more dangerous than at any other time in history, parents worry about what ‘might happen’ outdoors. Moreover, children are seen as separate from nature, and a ‘threat’ to society by playing football in the streets or by simply being out and about in the landscape.Our ideas about Nature like our ideas about childhood are always changing.<br />
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<br />friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-85323927857027051982011-08-19T15:41:00.000-07:002011-08-19T15:41:33.273-07:00Ailbhe<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK2LcUuUUXoPb9SazCTQ4Ak8rwzY8qapYmzt9lTQYq6Y0jd7UfmVI-lrEtYbee9e2-TWon9i8wrLE5B9CiGSSUd5-mXpYU5gaZXS324CEd_-DgB6YPABHsOGzE2mqK8vNBPaDFY7ZRQnw/s1600/jpeg_Y6R1028.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="425" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzK2LcUuUUXoPb9SazCTQ4Ak8rwzY8qapYmzt9lTQYq6Y0jd7UfmVI-lrEtYbee9e2-TWon9i8wrLE5B9CiGSSUd5-mXpYU5gaZXS324CEd_-DgB6YPABHsOGzE2mqK8vNBPaDFY7ZRQnw/s640/jpeg_Y6R1028.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-31935127819746335702011-08-19T15:37:00.000-07:002011-08-19T15:37:12.653-07:00children watching to much TV?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEeJcpBSBrulAhL-wVTOwIeUt5bXpL4A7N77LbbUnNbfBQVYh7ZcSPOwczmyx09N2E7i3OgnpxtPCZneKJG6db-Fn7lr5PyP0_5zS67yeoYWycbbiB-QK9j3_bpufPHuPR9oQlUa0WRAg/s1600/skrinking_Y6R1939.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="436" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrEeJcpBSBrulAhL-wVTOwIeUt5bXpL4A7N77LbbUnNbfBQVYh7ZcSPOwczmyx09N2E7i3OgnpxtPCZneKJG6db-Fn7lr5PyP0_5zS67yeoYWycbbiB-QK9j3_bpufPHuPR9oQlUa0WRAg/s640/skrinking_Y6R1939.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-33492534134631748962011-06-12T13:13:00.000-07:002011-06-15T13:43:06.955-07:00New photos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKytYTmHSw5GD_TpN5wJF3EZ5i50GyeRZsaBguqsmepqq5aSo5G_ynuJqD0RPcu2x6DNrUN7V9P6rpgGFQurhVq5dVvkIoXhm-xDD7jCi6SVmRFzj8NNk_GfcounUUirkja_YwQzaMyx3/s1600/shoc2_Y6R1969.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="432" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsKytYTmHSw5GD_TpN5wJF3EZ5i50GyeRZsaBguqsmepqq5aSo5G_ynuJqD0RPcu2x6DNrUN7V9P6rpgGFQurhVq5dVvkIoXhm-xDD7jCi6SVmRFzj8NNk_GfcounUUirkja_YwQzaMyx3/s640/shoc2_Y6R1969.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>New photo...same project, same concerns..been invited to exhibit these images in Dublin.<br />
link to http://www.childrenandnature.org/ <br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-LRn8vnwaJuPg0AjJLyl2rjnFhT3Did3aW4fYqSUe6DnyJyRRrzj9fDmaBf-I2Xr9ndOvu2Vdz7LBfnFEQPq1iSND0hKGedZIbKJoz4jsKXlg12qRjZVa0GXlObSAodDY3czfYgDFUrX_/s1600/boy+copy+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-LRn8vnwaJuPg0AjJLyl2rjnFhT3Did3aW4fYqSUe6DnyJyRRrzj9fDmaBf-I2Xr9ndOvu2Vdz7LBfnFEQPq1iSND0hKGedZIbKJoz4jsKXlg12qRjZVa0GXlObSAodDY3czfYgDFUrX_/s640/boy+copy+copy.jpg" width="512" /></a></div>friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-18413231201703804822011-03-30T14:21:00.000-07:002011-03-30T14:24:06.539-07:00New photos<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9Zt-HNqZOdpYT7bld_8x8UiGbRyZWvCzC8SzbA2UOPZJY1RF3rA8q2i2HVlSu8i6aX0jo_qoNqeuYoJvyWSCM8acTjCoIlhllyyq77qGx3WpJa7cTXFQ3-KfJQAbjPXE8sbSaxoy9ucI/s1600/jackde+window_Y6R0602.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="419" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9Zt-HNqZOdpYT7bld_8x8UiGbRyZWvCzC8SzbA2UOPZJY1RF3rA8q2i2HVlSu8i6aX0jo_qoNqeuYoJvyWSCM8acTjCoIlhllyyq77qGx3WpJa7cTXFQ3-KfJQAbjPXE8sbSaxoy9ucI/s640/jackde+window_Y6R0602.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>Screentime Jack.friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-6609495475511607822011-03-05T13:40:00.000-08:002011-03-05T13:40:35.497-08:00Play Again A new film brought to my attention by photographer and writer Kate Horgan that highlights the same issues that my project set out to do:<br />
<a href="https://www.lighthousecinema.ie/booking/film.php?e=AGAIN">https://www.lighthousecinema.ie/booking/film.php?e=AGAIN</a><br />
mikefriends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-90163380480421809822011-02-18T09:03:00.001-08:002011-02-18T09:03:44.739-08:00Cotton Wool Kids This Channel4 Programme is right up my street...<br />
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http://www.channel4.com/programmes/cotton-wool-kids/episode-guide/series-1/episode-1friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-5522429087144943902010-10-03T10:18:00.000-07:002010-10-27T14:44:42.308-07:00Photography award<h2 class="title node-title"><a href="http://gallerystock.com/blog/2010/09/17/mike-otoole-receives-honourable-mention-2010-berenice-abbott-prize">MIKE O'TOOLE RECEIVES HONOURABLE MENTION AT THE 2010 BERENICE ABBOTT PRIZE</a> </h2><div class="entry"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Berenice Abbott was a photographer of great accomplishment. She began her career as an assistant to Man Ray and became known mostly for her documentary work of New York City in the 1930s. Berenice was also a portrait photographer, an educator, an inventor, and a writer. She believed that all photographers should have personal projects that they are passionate about, no matter what the subject matter.</span></span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiPV1jkoAnHBM3hXG-cYo-KmiYN-Q5_ZmkbdV1u7FINcWX1jfEvhov_SbAHIpl7gauIclPdcxMkUWeH6dPvBLGK1piTkQQ7z0iZ5IDGaS5aIcmrZV4kNdH1WOi4_SOHII8MX_aUyC3mCIN/s1600/zoochildrenIMG_2063.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiPV1jkoAnHBM3hXG-cYo-KmiYN-Q5_ZmkbdV1u7FINcWX1jfEvhov_SbAHIpl7gauIclPdcxMkUWeH6dPvBLGK1piTkQQ7z0iZ5IDGaS5aIcmrZV4kNdH1WOi4_SOHII8MX_aUyC3mCIN/s320/zoochildrenIMG_2063.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">Mike O’Toole is one of Irelands most accomplished photographers .He lectures part time on the BA(Hons) in photography at <br />
IADT and is passionate about teaching photography.He graduated from The University of Westminister where he received an MA <br />
in photographic studies. He has shown his work at The Art directors club of New York and in exhibitions in London, Barcelona and <br />
Paris . His work has been commissioned by Conde Nast Traveller and The Washington Post and has won several international <br />
awards including a Silver at the Aop, Archive, Communication Arts and the International Photographers Awards. In July 2010 he was <br />
a speaker at the Seminar:New Frontiers, New Territories,Photography in Contemporary Spain at the Instituto Cervantes Dublin. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><span style="font-family: verdana,geneva;">His project which looks at how children are mostly indoors The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood received an Honorable mention in the 2010 Bernice Abbott photography awards. <br />
He works out of his studio at RUARED in Dublin. <br />
</span></span></span></div>friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-67018033304500891332010-08-11T08:45:00.000-07:002011-03-30T14:23:33.136-07:00Inside Out<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gGXcj_f3Eh0Eh2HNXLnrsH9TnWM84m6aI1N8ueRNqBXbC-7btk3W_Ls1DPFjIV0VwAJpX9j-nTKq4ZIYtm3C1aiKgo9o7bGH1hVx4tfvIhWOWlhCrJyvY26BmE1HeIipevPM6wTuMVwt/s1600/ailbhe_Y6R1217+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="420" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_gGXcj_f3Eh0Eh2HNXLnrsH9TnWM84m6aI1N8ueRNqBXbC-7btk3W_Ls1DPFjIV0VwAJpX9j-nTKq4ZIYtm3C1aiKgo9o7bGH1hVx4tfvIhWOWlhCrJyvY26BmE1HeIipevPM6wTuMVwt/s640/ailbhe_Y6R1217+copy.jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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</div>friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7647163304999209929.post-42990335543055961272010-08-09T15:39:00.000-07:002010-08-12T02:51:16.111-07:00The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qWd5JepngtdUIRQjxsgFIfhyphenhyphenuuwCd-mqeTCf_O5qXmCrnYNX90O130F6vMWHAHSSNjlbYD-5Id_FnayheAI5jQ9vMEgoqbs1Y5KuNzMElFy9wlwcaE068DI4zF8fICiHsVvg3cKBZZv_/s1600/cara.poscard.best..jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="452" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_qWd5JepngtdUIRQjxsgFIfhyphenhyphenuuwCd-mqeTCf_O5qXmCrnYNX90O130F6vMWHAHSSNjlbYD-5Id_FnayheAI5jQ9vMEgoqbs1Y5KuNzMElFy9wlwcaE068DI4zF8fICiHsVvg3cKBZZv_/s640/cara.poscard.best..jpg" width="640" /></a></div><br />
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<div style="font: 14px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood</span></span><span style="font: 12px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><span style="font-size: small;"> by Mike O'Toole</span></span><br />
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<span style="font: 12px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;">Background to the project: I began to notice how children today spent so much more time indoors and I began to think about how this restricts children's play, limits their freedom of movement and constrains their understanding of the environment and social world outside the home.</span><br />
<span style="font: 12px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;">I started to research the ideas of fear and control in childhood and about balancing protecting children with allowing them some agency over their own affairs.I wanted to explore this idea in my work and the best place was to start at home, photographing my family and friends children. </span><br />
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<span style="font: 12px Helvetica; letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Project text: </b></span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px; min-height: 14px;"><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Mike O’Toole’s series “The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood” was developed from reading an account by Renis Michels, a Dutch football coach about how he saw a family pull up their car near a woods in Holland.The dog ran out immediately but the children did not run out and explore the woods.The children did not see the woods as a place of play, of freedom or adventure.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Alas this has become the norm and today local children know more about the wildlife and environment of the Rainforest than of their own country.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Like most parents O’Toole worries about how much time children spend indoors, using modern technology and about health issues such as obesity in childhood.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">In this work he contrasted the fact that the children were staying indoors while it was sunny outside, using the reflections on the windows to bring nature indoors while playing with the idea of the underlying tension and the culture of fear that surrounds childhood.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Although the outdoors are no more dangerous than at any other time in history, parents worry about what ‘might happen’ outdoors. Apart from the dangers for children outside, children themselves are being seen as a ‘threat’ to society by playing football in the streets or simply being out and about. The children's commissioner commented “England is one of the most child unfriendly countries in the world”.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Sir Al Aynsley Green, who quit after five years in the job, said that the British public's hostility to young people had made his job as children's champion very difficult. </span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">We bring adult ideas of how children should be, control their activities and over-schedule their lives insofar as there is little agency or autonomy for children themselves, in short we don’t trust children.We keep them “safe” in their glass boxes like exotic birds from the Rainforest.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">O’Toole was conscious to make work that avoided the cliched imagery of children depicted in lifestyle campaigns or the harrowing looks of children depicted in charity advertising.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Avoiding the use of artificial lighting which is part of the high production values of fashion, movies and TV and with the language of light is associated with the idea of ‘re-illumination’ He choose instead to use natural light, which is the visual representation of freedom and natural impulses of man.</span></div><div style="font: 12px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Tim Gill a writer on childhood says “I see the benefit of time away from adults as an important way for children to grow up as engaged, self confident, resilient people with some control of their own lives. What's needed is frequent,unregulated,self directed contact with people and places beyond the immediate spheres of family and school and the chance to learn from their mistakes. Part social commentary, part fiction, part autobiography, this project is the start of a series on issues around childhood. </span></div><div style="font: 12px/15px Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">What interests O’Toole is a new kind of social documentary photography, less about reality and more about reflection. </span><br />
<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Mike O’Toole</span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"><b>Gallery Wall Text:</b><br />
The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood<br />
Mike O’Toole’s part fictional part autobiographic series explores the tensions and culture of fear surrounding childhood. The children seem to be wavering between being objects of voyeuristic observation and willingly acting out roles in some vague performance. <br />
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The Shrinking Horizons of Childhood deploys the aesthetic of confinement, contrasting the supposedly safe indoor space and the vibrating light coming through the windows posing no apparent danger, but still inaccessible. Surrounded by intangible, derealized images of nature reflected on the windows, the children come across as over-protected, locked in from whatever “might happen” outside and at the same time posing a threat to the established mechanics of society just by being out and about. <br />
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The photographic image functions an imaginary documentary, less preoccupied with reality than with fiction, echoing the essentially representable, imaginary reality learned from books and the internet the children tend to take for granted in their forced spiritual disconnection, and the socially imposed collective narratives of childhood, too vividly imprinted in their parents’ minds. <br />
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</div></div>friends of photographyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13318603996013055510noreply@blogger.com0