Down's upside

Eva Snoijink came into contact with Pien, a little girl with Down's syndrome. She realized that Pien was no different from all the other children she had photographed and that her own preconceived ideas about Down's Syndrome were actually baseless. She decided to do something about this, and thus the Down's Upside project was born.

The 101 portraits in this book let everyone take a look at the world of Down's syndrome. A world far removed from the stereotypical image: pitiful children with a pudding-bowl haircut and trousers pulled up to their armpits. The children Eva met are fully involved and enjoying life to the full, as are their parents. Eva has managed to capture that lust for life in her portraits and the accompanying brief texts written by the parents. Beautiful, moving photos of wonderful children, with texts about shock and sorrow, adjusting expectations but mainly about indescribable pride, love and joy.

Eva hopes that Down's Upside will not just be a pleasure to read and look at but that it will also help give people in our society a realistic impression of Down's syndrome - so that everyone who sees a child with Down's syndrome looks beyond the syndrome and learns to value the child behind the syndrome.