Eugene Vardanyan (aka Leda) is a Russian photographer, primarily of erotic portraits of women, but he occasionally photographs children too.  These shots are highly reminiscent of the work of Jan Saudek, and as with several of Saudek’s images of children, the adult erotic cues given to these little girls are intended to be ironic and slightly surreal.

Eugene Vardanyan – Aleksandra, 6 Years Old (2003)

Eugene Vardanyan – Сказка про Крас (2003)

Eugene Vardanyan – Сказка про Мами (2003)

Eugene Vardanyan – (Title Unknown) (2003)

Eugene Vardanyan – Fairy Tale (2003)

Eugene Verdanyan – Hunger (2003)

Photodom.com: Eugene Vardanyan

Comments:

From Ron on July 28, 2012

The first name that comes to my mind is Irina Ionesco with theatrical and dark erotic costumes and backgrounds. The attitude here is slightly more cheery, however.

From pipstarr72 on July 28, 2012

Ha! Cheery isn’t the word I would’ve used, though I don’t think the mood is depressing. I think here the poses are less forced than with Ionesco, and there’s a sense that the girl is just playing around for a bit, whereas with Ionesco’s photos you get the sense that Eva was pressured to pose constantly and quite bored with it all, not to mention the feeling, however intangible, that the girl’s mother is overbearing. Of course, I must admit that those feelings are quite possibly ex post facto on learning of Eva’s adult feelings toward her mother and the photographs she participated in.