Week Three, Part II

I recently stumbled upon Frieke Janssens’ “Smoking Kids” series- which at first I found hilarious. Though the more I looked at the photographs, the more my opinion of the series was skewed.  Most of Janssens’ work is advertising for big name companies in Belgium, but in a de-glamorized light. This project highlights that weird, dissonant feeling to her work. In her words, she wanted to “isolate the viewer’s focus upon the issue of smoking itself,” rather than the person doing the smoking. Though a smoking adult has become somewhat of a societal norm, a smoking child definitely has a “surreal impact,” and really walks the fine line between the attractiveness and ugliness of smoking.