Sunday, October 20, 2013

The Kids Grow Up – Fast !!!!

The Kids Grow Up – Fast - child kid shaving in the mirror


Ask any parent, children grow up fast. One day they are babies, and the next day they are out the door. It sounds clichéd, I know. So much so that when my son was a baby, after hearing such clichés countless times from strangers, I had made moves to print myself up a T-shirt that said something to the effect, “I know they grow up fast…you don’t have to tell me.” I decided that this gesture was a little too bratty of me, as seasoned parents seem to really enjoy telling the newbie parents how quick everything stumbles along into the future. I am sure it does, as everything in retrospect seems to have gone by quickly.
One way of halting, or at least giving the illusion of temporarily halting, the maturation process is to generously document the growth of your child. You do this with pictures, video, and recordings of every conceivable moment of their young lives. Some parents are a bit more committed to this task than others, as is evidenced by the two utterly charming and entrancing videos below. Dutch filmmaker (and father of two) Frans Hofmeester has been religiously documenting his son and daughter for over a decade with these time-lapse video portraits. Like watching a flower bloom or a storm roll in, these fast motion portraits evoke a sense of the frivolity of youth and a sense of lost time. Here are the portraits of his children:
Lotta
Vince
As a coincidence, but totally unrelated, I found a similarly-themed video by the performer and songwriter Feist that recreates childhood photographs and restages them, as faithfully as possible, with the original subjects all grown up. Beautiful as well:
Bittersweet Melodies by Feist
How do you choose to document the passing of youth in your life? What is the most enduring and creative way you have preserved time?



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