This photo gallery is named “The beauty of an ugly addiction” and is work of Frieke Janssens, advertising photographer that lives and works in Belgium. These shocking and deeply disturbing images present children smoking and are created to raise people’s awareness on the problem of smoking. The artist is probably trying to say that adults who smoke are like children who can’t willfully decide whether or not to partake in this horribly harmful habit. I only hope that the photos below are photoshoped and aren’t really kids who smoke cigarettes, cigarillos, the ones with white and without filters.
I get what she wanted to say, bu the thing that bothers me is why she made them look so cool, classy and glamorous? It’s almost like she is promoting smoking. She probably wanted to emphasize that aspect of smoking, because many people aside from obvious addictive aspect of smoking, take up this horrible habit because it has the appeal of its performative consumption. Smoking provides you with that mannerism or pose that seems to imbue a smoker with a particular sort of character. It’s almost like putting on a costume.
