Photographer Frieke Janssens found inspiration in the debate when last year, smoking became prohibited in bars in Belgium. He created this controversial series “Smoking kids (the beauty of an ugly addiction)” actually as an anti-smoking campaign. I find them so beautifully shot and styled, yet somehow shocking, which is the whole point.
For these portraits Frieke used children from age 4 to 9 as models, sucking on a cigarette. This way, the attention is drawn to the smoking, instead of the portraited person. Frieke got the idea from the unbelievable youtube-video where you see a 2 year old Indonesian boy smoking. Frieke didn’t use real cigarettes, they were made of cheese.
