These are black and white photographs that look like they have fallen out of time. The pictures show children who neither watch TV nor use a computer. Instead, a boy tenses a home-made bow, a girl rides half-naked in the mud around.
These moments are captured by the children's mother, photographer Niki Boon. A few years ago, Boon and her husband decided to offer their offspring an unusual childhood - without smartphones, tablets or laptops.
Since then, Boon has lived with her four children Kurt, Anton, Rebecca and Arwen on a ten-acre property in the Marlborough region of the South Island of New Zealand. The house of the family is surrounded by nature: rolling hills, rivers and a wild coastal landscape.
A few years ago, Boon and her husband decided to take their children out of school and train at home. Instead of adhering to a fixed curriculum, the boys and girls are largely to develop their own projects and activities and, according to their parents, learn about the world. Many friends, acquaintances and relatives initially had reservations. Today they would see how happy the kids are and how much they learned, says Boon.
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Archery, mud fight and hopping rubber: childhood without a tabletAccording to the photographer, the children are not missing the devices, only very rarely would the two older people now use computers and mobile phones to research information or to communicate with their friends. The fact that the children do without TV, games consoles and cell phones does not make them bored.
The surrounding nature of their house offers plenty of variety: The children spend most of their time outdoors, playing, taking care of their goats, sheep, chickens, ducks and horses. They jump into the river, they draw, read, climb trees, walk across fields - instead of staring at monitors.
Boon has her camera on a shelf in the living room, and whenever something interesting happens, she picks it up. This happens sometimes several times a day, sometimes only every few days, according to the photographer. For the most part, the images spontaneously arise, only rarely does the mother ask her children to repeat something so that she can capture the situation.
Boon prints out many of the photos and sticks them in albums, but the kids would not show much interest in them. "Hopefully they'll look back and enjoy it one day," says Boon. She herself would like to have more pictures from her own past - her own parents barely photographed her.