Annagred Knight, Ivy (PEOPLE 2024)

This image was taken as part of my Petite Portraits Project- Black and White Children's Portraits. These images began as a bit of fun dressing up at Play centre, and have turned into a reimaging of the dusty portraits our parents had done of us as kids, hung proudly in the home. The whole idea of the Petite Portraits, is that it's led by the children, not directed but the adults. We let their imaginations take over and run with whatever they choose to do on the day, whether that's an Elsa dress that's not been changed for the last 2 weeks for smaller children, or something more subdued like Ivy here; a simple hat and Mum's shoes. As we watch our children grow into men and women, the awareness and self consciousness makes an appearance, and this makes me a little sad to see childhood naivety slipping away. But here you can see Ivy as she decides to pull on a couple of dress up items, she begins to smile and loosen up, and really we never loose that child who loved to dress up, they just need the right environment to come out and play. We push pause and capture these beautiful moments, the essence of childhood, for parents to have forever. I run these sessions a few times a year in a studio and so far they have sold out each time in a few days which makes me excited about the future for Petite Portraits!!

Images have been resized for web display, which may cause some loss of image quality. Note: Original high-resolution images are used for judging.