Milena Jami whips her llama to win the first place in the a race for children of ages seven and eight at the Llanganates National Park, Ecuador, Saturday, February 8, 2020. Wooly llamas, an animal emblematic of the Andean mountains in South America, become the star for a day each year when Ecuadoreans dress up their prized animals for children to ride them in 500-meter races. (Photo by Dolores Ochoa/AP Photo)

Sinterklaas (R) a legendary figure based on Saint Nicholas, Christian patron saint of children, and page Sooty Piet have a video call with children in Dodewaard, the Netherlands, 01 December 2021. The Christian feast of Saint Nicholas is celebrated annually with the giving of gifts on the eve of 05 December in The Netherlands. (Photo by Remko de Waal/EPA/EFE/Rex Features/Shutterstock)

Buddhists monks and children look out from the rooftop at a Buddhist mission hostel and school for underprivileged children as an international passenger flight takes off at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport as the authorities eased restrictions imposed as a preventive measure against the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus, in Kolkata on July 5, 2020. (Photo by Dibyangshu Sarkar/AFP Photo)

Charlotte fights a monster with a “wand” in her bedroom in Laure Fauvel's “Terreurs”, 2014, in Paris, France. An imaginative photographer has brought to life monsters that haunt children's nightmares. Armed with sticks, wands and swords the eight and nine year-olds appear to be getting the upper-hand against the villains. Parisian photographer Laure Fauvel, 22, said: I wanted the children not be victims and to fight the monsters. (Photo by Laure Fauvel/Barcroft Media)

Rapper Pitbull performs onstage during Nickelodeon's celebration of the new Burbank facility on January 11, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Charley Gallay/Getty Images for Nickelodeon)

Yawalapiti children play during the preparations for the celebration of “quarup”, a ritual held to honor in death a person of great importance to them, in the Xingu National Park, Mato Grosso State, May 7, 2012. (Photo by Ueslei Marcelino/Reuters)

Erik Ravelo goes straight for the jugular in his series, Los Intocables (The Untouchables). Depicting children in one the most vulnerable poses of all time, Ravelo attempts to speak for those who cannot properly articulate their pain. The sick, twisted games that adults play can come at a cost to future generations and Ravelo’s series gives a voice to those children who get caught in the crossfire.

Australian artist Polixeni Papapetrou trends the line between fantasy/theatre, mythology/reality, archetype/play, male/female, child/adult and animal/human. As with all her work the series The Dreamkeepers tells a story that includes her autobiographical relationship with her children, but it also says a lot more about the condition of childhood - its place in our culture and how we react to images of children in photography.