These thoughtful pictures show us something of classroom dynamics, something of the pupils peer behaviour in front of the camera; along with rich details of their environment. For example, text on blackboards and wall displays become narrative cues to events beyond the picture. The pupils stare back at us with a sense of purpose, self-conscious but also self assured, even indifferent at times. As faux school photographer, Germain embraces a genre strongly attached to values associated with sentiment and nostalgia. Here, in the classroom, we sense our own biography through the photograph that acts as a catalyst for thinking about this occasionally pleasurable, traumatic and deeply formative phase of our lives.

Russell Roberts, Archive magazine, October 2005