In a world dominated with electronic devices, social media, live updates and fast-paced communication, one photographer has decided to take a step back and share what life is like without them.
Niki Boon, a photographer from New Zealand, is known for her ongoing photo series ‘Childhood in Raw’ where she shares photos of her four children and their technology-free life growing up on their rural 10 acre property.
‘My children are unschooled and live without TV or modern electronic devices, a lifestyle that may seem unconventional to some, but I am here to celebrate the magical place I choose to live with my family.’
Niki was originally trained as a Physiotherapist and spent six years working both in New Zealand and the UK, before she formally stopped working after her second child was born. At home with her two children, Niki says that she rekindled a passion for photography.
Niki describes her children’s days as “full of nature and uninhibited play.” Her pictures evoke a tug to the earth, a stirring of that connection with nature that resides deep within us, masked as it may be by computers and air conditioning and giant iced coffees.
“I photograph as physical record of their childhood, life as it is … the real … but also as a reflection of a childhood rooted deep in my own past … a most sincere place of freedom … a childhood I now pass on to my own children. Although deeply personal I believe that others will also connect to some aspect of their own childhood,” Niki writes.
“They belong here wild and free and earth connected in a way where the landscape begins and their little souls end,” Niki continues.
As any parent has experienced, childhood is made magical by the simplest of things, instead of the fanciest of toys — the sticks outside, the box a gift arrives in, the act of storytelling outside on a sunny day. “I love how kids get so into the simple things.”
And as far as screens go, don’t worry. Boon’s kids totally know the right way to treat technology:
Niki Boon Photography – www.nikiboonphotos.com
