Valentina, The Fastest

Vik Muniz

1996 · Gelatin silver print · Photographs

For the Sugar Children series, Muniz took pictures of local children while on vacation in the Caribbean. Upon returning home, he worked from the snapshots, creating likenesses by pouring and arranging sugar on black paper. The artist here skillfully undermines the tradition of the "happy locals" vacation photo through pictures laced with a bittersweet irony: the sugar Muniz pours connotes both the elixir of childhood and the hard labor of the local trade.

Artist

Vik Muniz

Date

1996

Medium

Gelatin silver print

Department

Photographs

Credit line

Purchase, Anonymous Gift, 1997