René and Radka

Written by Tami Mnoian on Friday, 12 June 2009 17:33

It’s mid May and René and Radka, the Paris-based fashion photography duo, have just arrived to Brooklyn for the second annual New York Photo Festival. Their playground- and underwater-scapes are featured in “I don’t really know what kind of girl I am,” curated by New York magazine Photo Director Jody Quon. These images are stunning photographic paintings of light and color that read like an impeccably styled storybook. When they breeze into the office to say hello and confirm that their prints have been delivered safely, René and Radka are bubbly light and energy that reflects in their work.
Rene Radka 2

Photographing as a pair for the last eight years, René and Radka, German and Czech respectively, create dreamy fashion editorials for the likes of Vogue and Citizen K, and witty commercial spreads for Miss Sixty, Energie, and Kenzo, among others. Recently, much of their work has featured children. With them, René and Radka imagine rather un-childlike predicaments—suspended underwater, standing at the mouth of a maze, or posed on a velvet sofa of the Chelsea Hotel. These images are a satisfying combination of sweet and sinister that recalls an Andrew Wyeth painting.

RenÃ© and Radka Ocean with gold chains

“We don’t consider children to be smiling, happy, jumping around, cute things.” Radka explains. In fact, in many of their images, these children are often stationary, seated on a merry-go-round or swing. There is no movement or noise, almost as if time has stopped. Radka says that their models are like dolls to dress up and place in interesting settings. “We try to look at the different dimensions of a child’s word,” she continues, “whether it’s dreams, fairytales, magic, or fear. This is an endless source of inspiration.”
Rene&Radka

Radka further explains their fascination with kids. “Adults always have the tendency to play someone else. It comes from the accumulation of things we collect in life that causes us to build a protection shield. Children don’t do this yet, and are simply unaffected and spontaneous.”
Post Festival, René and Radka’s next venture is an exhibition in Florence, Dreams and Shadows, at the Museo Nazionale Alinari della Fotografia. “We would love to make people dream,” Radka muses, “and take them away, even for a small moment, from their everyday routine. It sounds probably like a clichÃ©, but it’s important to us.”

-Tami Mnoian

For more information about René and Radka visit www.reneradka.com

Images courtesy of René and Radka

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