Portraits Capture the Completely Mesmerized Faces of Children Watching TV

How do you relax after a long day? If you're like many people, then you might watch television to unwind. Brooklyn-based photographer Donna Stevens created a fascinating series that shows just how engrossing this activity is, specifically with children. The project is called Idiot Box, and it features dramatic portraits of youngsters staring blankly at a television positioned in the distance.

Stevens' photos aren't trying to be hyperbolic. The relationship between children and screens is very involved. In 2013, TIME shared that kids watch a full-time job's worth of TV each week. Idiot Box pictures were shot while children watched the television, and it gives an authentic look at glazed-over eyes and crookedly-amused smiles.

To the viewer, the photographer's images might be unsettling. This uncomfortable feeling seems to touch on what the series is all about. “TV is just one of the many ever present black mirrors through which we mediate our lives today,” Stevens writes on her website. She goes on to muse, “Should we exhibit more caution about the role of technology in our children's lives? Is our techno-paranoia warranted?” Whatever your viewpoint may be, it's hard to deny that here, television has transported these kids to a whole different world.

Donna Stevens website
via [Feature Shoot and PetaPixel]

Sara Barnes

Sara Barnes is a Staff Editor at My Modern Met, Manager of My Modern Met Store, and co-host of the My Modern Met Top Artist Podcast. As an illustrator and writer living in Seattle, she chronicles illustration, embroidery, and beyond through her blog Brown Paper Bag and Instagram @brwnpaperbag. She wrote a book about embroidery artist Sarah K. Benning titled 'Embroidered Life' that was published by Chronicle Books in 2019. Sara is a graduate of the Maryland Institute College of Art. She earned her BFA in Illustration in 2008 and MFA in Illustration Practice in 2013.
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