Tranquillity always radiates through Stills and this is especially the case with their current exhibition. From Czech-born photographer Markéta Luskačová’s impressive decade-spanning portfolio, Stills presents an arresting body of black and white works with a thematic focus on childhood. Dated from 1964–2009 and taken across the UK, Ireland, Slovakia and Czech Republic, these photographs evoke a special kind of nostalgia within the onlooker; a nostalgia which encourages us to dream of the lives those subjects might be leading now, as adults. 

As a social photographer, Luskačová depicts everyday reality in all its harshness and beauty. A selection of her photographs capture children frozen in time as they eat candy floss, play dress-up and run in the playground; quintessential activities we associate with a carefree childhood. Alongside these portrayals of innocence, the striking photographs taken at carnivals show a wildness and euphoria to youth, especially evident in ‘Carnival Procession, Roztoky, Czech Republic’ (2008).   

A few sweet epithets about childhood embellish the curation, although curiosity surrounding the subjects and their circumstances gets the better of me; I wish we could find out more about their stories through text on the gallery walls.

Markéta Luskačová, Stills, Edinburgh, until Saturday 7 October.