Dakota Fanning

Dakota Fanning, Toronto, Sept. 12, 2005

I HAVEN'T PHOTOGRAPHED A LOT OF CHILDREN IN MY CAREER, mostly because my attitude about children is roughly similar to W.C. Field's. I debated whether to post these photos, but decided to put them up in the end because of the continued fame of the subject, and the novelty of the actual shoot.

I'm not actually sure why Dakota Fanning was at the film festival that year. According to her filmography, she had five film credits that year, including a horror film with Robert DeNiro, the Lilo & Stitch sequel for Disney, a horse picture where she co-starred with Kurt Russell and Kris Kristofferson, and one of those linked mini-drama films that saw her share the bill with Holly Hunter, Sissy Spacek, Glenn Close, Robin Wright and Amanda Seyfried. Oh, and Steven Spielberg's War of the Worlds where Tom Cruise played her dad.

It was a busy year for an eleven year old.

Dakota Fanning, Toronto, Sept. 12, 2005

It's not easy photographing a child - even one with more acting experience than many of the adults I'd photograph at a film festival. She was eminently able to address my camera, which is something that the average child (or adult, for that matter) without an agent, handler and PR person can't do easily, but didn't come off like a smug little adult.

At this point in her career Fanning looked - at least in these shots - like she was excited about having her picture taken and about being at a film festival. And she had no problem showing her braces when she smiled. She also might be one of the biggest stars I might have photographed during this period, which still doesn't help mute my nagging feeling that child actors are something that maybe shouldn't exist.