Notes on Childhood

Janet Pan’s Notes on Childhood explores what it means to grow up and what we lose in that process. The series is a combination of photography, photoshop collage, and illustration to create surreal childlike imagery, similar to that of our memories of childhood. Her series comes from the idea that as we get older, there is a social pressure to act or express ourselves in a certain way. Pan opposes that social norm of giving up wonder and imagination as we age. This collection of photos started with Pan’s childhood memory of the excitement when opening a fortune cookie to read a motivating message on what is to come. She turns this around and asks questions about the past instead. With each photograph, Pan creates dreamlike scenes to tap into the memories and imagination associated with childhood. With Notes on Childhood, Pan hopes to remind people of the things they used to feel free to do and feel as a child and ask ‘why can’t we be that way anymore?’