The Scene of Childhood

Photographer Lionel Jusseret captures the magical ways that autistic children communicate.

From the Series

Belgian photographer Lionel Jusseret began photographing autistic children in 2012. What he found was a complex condition exacerbated by inadequate institutions and the toxicity of modern psychology that relies more on medicating than actual understanding. His resulting body of work, titled “Kinderszenen” (The Scene of Childhood) uses light in abrupt and powerful ways to capture delicate and unexpected moments at the French association Deligny.

“Most of these children do not speak. Despite their silence, the means they eventually find to communicate are unique to each one, sometimes almost magical,” Jusseret. “Still, this is not to romanticise their difficulties. This particular childhood is brutal and honest.”