A Child’s View: Living spaces photographed by children

Description:
For a child, every space holds a different meaning from that of an adult. A street becomes a canvas to draw on; a river becomes a natural pool; and temples and mosques become the perfect playing grounds. For the purpose of this project, we will call these spaces with special meanings for children, “spots.” Children have their own respective social relationships and activity spaces. The present exercise involved observing the way in which children perceive these daily “spots” in comparison with adults?

We handed out cameras to children and asked them to photograph such “spots,” either the “places where they play all the time” or “places that are important to them.”

The resulting photographs include the “spots” (what the spaces mean to the children). These have been cut out and projected on a screen. They involve areas that went largely unnoticed by adults. What emerges from these pictures is a new perception of space, where the private and public use of space intermingles. Through these photographs, we can find new meanings in the everyday world we have grown so accustomed to seeing.

We would like this website to become a “spot” that creates some sort of connection between the web viewers and children. The viewers’ comments on the sites will be given to the children as feedback. This creates a connection between the photographing and the viewing side beyond space. Through the process of photographing, exhibiting, and feedback, the children will most likely recognize that they have connected with an even bigger world.