During my 15 years as a nanny in Silver Lake, California, I grasped that the children's laughter-filled days would fade from memory. Researching "childhood amnesia", the forgotten years before age 7, I made it my mission to become a witness to their days, capturing the fleeting essence of early childhood.
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Laurie Freitag Joined: Dec-18-2019 |
Laurie Freitag is a Los Angeles–based iPhone photographer whose work explores childhood, memory, time, and the quiet spaces of becoming. She is best known for The Lost Years, photographing children she cared for as a nanny in Silver Lake and Los Feliz. The work took shape slowly, through daily life and quiet observation. Her approach is guided by the principles of Magda Gerber and Emmi Pikler, emphasizing respect, autonomy, and honoring personal space. Children are photographed from behind or in soft profile—not to hide them, but to protect them—inviting viewers to recall moments of early childhood.
Her work has appeared in Los Angeles, Greece, Paris, and Barcelona. In Julia Dean’s Projecting L.A., 23 images were projected three stories high for an audience of 2,000. The Lost Years received Best Series in the Julia Margaret Cameron Awards and was recognized in Photolucida’s Critical Mass Top 200. A selection of The Lost Years is represented by Duncan Miller Gallery in Los..
