Alter Ego

“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited. Whereas imagination embraces the entire world, stimulating progress, giving birth to evolution.” – Albert Einstein. Alter Ego, is a project that dives into children’s imagination and fantasy world. All the children are five years old when photographed. Through play and imagination, they explore the world and their identities in it. Imagination is essential in all kinds of creativity. It is just as important for the scientist and inventor as it is for artists. These pictures show us how playing and pretending to be someone else is important for these children’s developing identities. What makes someone able to do what others haven’t even thought about – design the pyramids, cross oceans to discover new continents, paint the Mona Lisa, invent the self-driving car or travel to the moon? The imagination is a powerful force in projects like these. It gives clear ideas to a different reality and lets us see ourselves in new roles and situations we yet have to experience. It has been claimed that the imagination starts to dwindle in strength after a few years in the rigid system of school, when we must conform to rules, are judged by our scholarly results, and expected to fit in. There is reason to believe that those who to do remarkable things for mankind never stopped imagining or exploring. But most importantly imagination is a key ingredient for developing resilience, which we all need in life.