Secret Games: Collaborative Works with Children 1969-1999

by Wendy Ewald, Urs Stahel, Adam D. Weinberg

Our perceptions of children are only too often distorted by our inclination to project grown-up fantasies of innocence and naivete onto them. Working with children, American photographer Wendy Ewald reveals the lucidity and precision of their powers of observation, gently but assuredly overturning cherished notions of childhood as a paradise lost. In Secret Games Ewald leads you into a world that is as eerie, haunting and threatening as it is joyous and mischievous-life as children really experience it. In 1969, when Wendy Ewald taught photography to children for the first time on a Native American reservation in Nova Scotia, she was stunned by how astute and beautiful their photographs of the environment they were growing up in were. Moving on to the Kentucky Appalachians, she continued working with children, combining her own photographs with the children's photographs and writings. For the past thirty years she has worked with children and women all over the world. Secret Games offers a comprehensive overview of Ewald's collaborative works, with in-depth texts by Ewald tracing the evolution of her work and the ideas guiding it.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art

336 pages, Hardcover

First published August 15, 2000

About the author

Wendy Ewald (born in 1951) is an American photographer and educator.

Wendy Ewald was born in Detroit, Michigan, graduated from Abbot Academy in 1969 and attended Antioch College between 1969–74, as well as the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she studied photography with Minor White. She embarked on a career teaching photography to children and young people internationally. In 1969 & 1970, she taught photography to Innu and Mi'kmaq Native-American children in Canada. Between 1976–80 she taught photography and film-making to students in Whitesburg, Kentucky, in association with Appalshop, a media co-op. In 1982, she traveled to Ráquira, Colombia, on a Fulbright fellowship working with children and community groups; spending a further two years in Gujarat, India. Ewald is married to Tom McDonough, a writer and cinematographer. They live in the Hudson Valley of New York with their son, Michael.

(from Wikipedia)

Reviews

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Absolutely fascinating. For what didn't work as much as for what did. I want to know everything about her journey and process. This gives me a glimpse -- despite the huge collection of photos!

The quality of the prints is luxurious. And so are the faces.

The writings left me wanting more.
But that is also super interesting.

[Swanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's hard to find Wendy Ewald's now out of print 'Portraits & Dreams', her amazing project of teaching kids in Appalachia to photograph recreations of their dreams, take self portraits, and document their family life in photos and words. The result was a record of their surreal imaginations, aspirations, love of their families, and innocent and hopeful views of life set against a hardscrabble backdrop that most would not physically escape. They also made art that you wont forget.
In 'Secret Games' you'll find some of the examples above along with Ewald's collaborations with kids from Mexico to India and in between.