Alex Ten Napel

Ten Napel's photos instantly caught my attention. I first found his series of photos of children (almost) submerged in water, which reminded me of my idea of photographing my nephew whilst in the bath. The beauty of the stillness of water, and vulnerability of the children being wet, cold and alone creates a breathtaking still photo.

'Reasons my son is crying'

I stumbled across this blog (http://www.reasonsmysoniscrying.com) a few months ago and really liked it. It's a father posting images of his son crying, and giving the reason why. The hilarity lies in the reasons for his son crying. I also like the fact that this father is taking photos of his son crying - generally we like to keep happy memories, but I enjoyed the funny twist he has created. The father has now opened up his blog to include entries from other parents. Below are a few examples.

"She wouldn't fit through the doggy door. Note: the open door right next to her."

"I asked him to try strawberry cheese."

"I stuck the stickers he wanted on his face, on his face."

"He met Iron Man... out of costume."

Photographer research thoughts

Many photographers that either deliberately or inadvertantly capture images of children's innocence do so in black and white. To be quite honest, I'm unsure why, but it seems to be the 'trend' (apart from the photos before colour printing). I feel that a children's lives are naturally very colourful, so why photograph them in black and white? 

I've also noticed many photographers use a documentary style when exploring the idea of child innocence. i.e., Cartier-Bresson seems to hide behind the subjects and camera, as opposed to including them in the images. The viewer therefore feels as if they are looking at a photograph, as opposed to 'being' there, being able to relate to the feelings felt when in that moment. Although the lines between portraiture and documentary photography can be blurred, I really want to focus on the portraiture side within my project. I feel that the close-ups I use will help this, but I suppose ultimately it's subjective and up to the viewer how they feel.

Lastly, it seems as if children are photographed in two ways - angelic-like or controversially (such as Sally Mann). The issue with Mann's images is that ultimately, they aren't controversial photographs - the controversy resides in the fact that Mann released these personal family photos to the public. Of course everyone has seen a young child naked, it's all part of the "child innocence" era where no one cares if a child is naked. However, in this day and age, these images are viewed as controversial because of who the images might end up with. 

On the other hand, where children are photographed with wings (see Cameron's work), or made up perfectly (Vlckova's work) is quite frankly unreal. I want to explore child innocence realistically - with jagged fringes, messy mouths, lost teeth, chicken pox, etc. As far as I have researched, I haven't found any photographers that have explored this area of child innocence. 

Yes, children are special, pure, naive and innocent, but they can also be messy, annoying, funny and difficult. I want to capture the light-heartedness of child innocence.

Tereza Vlckova

"She seeks a fine line between fiction and reality. Are all of the twins truly twins or have some been created merely showing an alter-ego of some of the girls? "

The above quote is exactly why I really like Vlckova's project on twins. The mystery of the twins being real or an alter ego is really interesting. The fact that most of the photos are set in magical, outdoor scenes also suggests further mystery into the 'fairytale'.

Diane Arbus

Arbus's photos of children closely reflect her projects of the extraordinary. Arbus is well known for photographing different, marginalised people. Her images of children therefore reflect this, as I believe they all contain some element of 'individualism', craziness, oddness, etc. 

Henri Cartier-Bresson

Cartier-Bresson's images are clearly snapshots of time - every photo is precious in its own way. Child innocence is explored through war and poverty, but hints at the joy children can find amongst anything. Like Lange, his photos are raw, blunt, stark. 

Dorothea Lange

Lange offers another different angle of the idea of child innocence. Her images are raw and simple. Where some images convey happiness and carelessness, others suggest loneliness and sadness, two things that aren't associated with child innocence. 

Julia Margaret Cameron

I've admired Cameron's work for a while now, I love her images experiment with focus, which many believe was down to her lack of photography skills. She was one of the inspirations of my last project, where I produced untraditional family portraits that weren't in focus where would usually be expected. 

Cameron's images of children show them in a very soft, innocent light, which is helped by the soft focus used in most photos. Cameron clearly understood that childhood was a precious time of life, which is expressed by her images.

Sally Mann

Sally Mann has been a reoccurring name when searching for child innocence photography. Although controversial, I think her photos are captivating, natural and bare. Her style of capturing her own children's lives and innocence is quite different to the ideas for my own project, but shows further understanding and insight into the idea of child innocence.

Favourite images from test shoot

The last image is my favourite. I love that he is looking up, the positioning and obviously how his fringe (although it doesn't look very 'jagged' in this photo) is the main event, along with his eyes. And his monobrow (which also relates to child innocence, because he didn't and doesn't care that I was taking a close-up photo of his monobrow, suggesting he has little sense of self consciousness). I think the photo gives enough, but not too much.

In terms of equipment, I am using a Canon 40D with a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens. This particular lens enables me to get the close-up photos I want, whilst creating a good depth of field, so that I can adjust the focus. All photos are taken handheld, as I don't think a tripod would help in this case due to the motion of my subject, therefore I have to shoot in good light (which is all natural). I think artificial light would juxtapose the 'innocent' aspect to my project - innocence is related to pureness, natural, etc., so I believe using natural light feels 'right'.

Test shoot comments

I am already aware of the problems with shooting young children from my last project - they constantly move, don't want to stand still (and why would they want to?), making it tricky to get a decent photograph of them.

I tried the technique of getting my nephew to stand by a wall and count to twenty, attempting to turn me taking photos of him into a 'game', but apparently it wasn't very interesting as he moved away instantly. Therefore, much like my last project, my images will be ad-hoc in the sense that I will simply have to keep trying to take photos until I get the ones I want/like. You can't ask young children to sit on a chair and smile, or simply keep still, like an adult could. Ironically, the topic of my project disables me from capturing the images I want easily. 

Test shoot

Below are contact sheets from my first initial test shoot with my nephew. A lot of the images I took aren't quite "right", whether it's to do with the focus or aperture, because I was getting used to the camera (Canon 40D), as my sister kindly let me borrow it as she has upgraded her camera. Although I own a Canon DSLR myself, it's quite an old version so took me a while to get used to the newer model.

Ethics/possible issues

As I plan to take photographs of children, obviously I need to be clever in how I go about it. 

Firstly, I don't think it's right nor do I feel comfortable asking strangers if I can take photographs of their children. Although I would reassure them that it's simply for a project and that they would obviously be present whilst I'm photographing their child, I still wouldn't feel comfortable. I think I may feel this due to the fact that ultimately, they will be a stranger, and although I can have their best interests at heart, I might feel as if they don't trust me, which ultimately would be the worst situation to put myself in. Although some parents may enjoy the idea of having someone take photographs of their children for free, which I would of course give them copies of, I think it's too awkward to go ahead with asking strangers.

It is lucky then that I have a large family! In total, there are 9 children aged between 8 years - 6 months old in my close and extended family. Despite the range of ages I have access to, I feel that my nephew's age (now 3) is the best age to focus on. He isn't fully immersed with technology (although he can operate an iPhone pretty well), he still very much so enjoys playing, using make-believe, and has recently started pre-school which has widened his ideas of 'friends' and friendships. Additionally, as he is my nephew, he knows me well, as opposed to my cousin's children who although have met me many times, aren't fully aware of exactly who I am. After all, it was a photograph of my nephew (Arlo) that initially sparked my idea for this project, so using him as my subject only seems right. 

I feel it would be really nice to have images that capture the essence of Arlo's child innocence that I can show him, and ultimately, that he can keep when he grows up.

Possible photograph ideas

I've decided on my project idea and what I will take photos of, but how will they look?

I began thinking of characteristics of children, such as losing teeth, messy mouths from eating, bad haircuts, playing with toys, bath time, sleeping, etc. This helped me to decide exactly what I plan on photographing. 

I want to take close-up/extreme close-up photographs of the above ideas. I began sketching possible photos, as seen below.

By producing these photographs, I won't show the full identity of the child (which is arguably a good thing in order to protect the child's identity), but also helps to create the untraditional view of child innocence photographs, which are generally mid-shots of children in action. Additionally, by using close-ups, it forces the viewer to focus on that particular area, so hopefully a close up of a jagged fringe will help to reinforce the idea of a child, and therefore child innocence, which enables viewers to understand the project without needing much guidance. Self-explanatory photographs are, as I have found, almost always effective in drawing an audience in due to them understanding and therefore not feeling excluded or 'outside'. Instead, viewers are welcomed and can instantly associate themselves with the photographs.

Project ideas

I'm currently wondering how my photos will look - what do I want to take photos of? Obviously they will relate to my topic of child innocence, but I could go in a few directions. Do I take photographs of things that represent child innocence to me, such as the red Berol pens (image below) everyone used at primary school, school book bags, toys, games, etc? Or do I take photos of actual children, more portraiture? 

When searching 'child innocence' on Google images, the majority of photos are of mid-shot portraits of children, either shown in an angelic-like pose or playing/laughing. This made me think about conventions of child photography - of course every parent wants photos of their children to be 'nice', pretty and show off-able - but what if they weren't? Or, what if they were different?

I'm not keen on photographing products that relate to child innocence. I don't think it's personable, nor do I think it would make an interesting project. I'd be afraid that it would turn into product photography as opposed to illustrating the ideas behind child innocence. Therefore, I think I will stick with my idea of taking portraiture photos of children. However, like my past project 'Family Focus', which included untraditional photos of my family (which hence made a family portrait as a whole project), I like to focus on the untraditional, blurring the lines of convention, as I don't feel there should be any (to an extent!) 'rules' in photography.

So, as an initial idea, I aim to produce a series of portraiture photographs that represent child innocence in an untraditional way.

Changing childhoods

There have been and continue to be many discussions on what childhood 'should be' and how it is changing with the introduction of modern technology.

Pratibha Prashar blames the 'machine age' for speeding up with child innocence process. Below are some extracts from her article "Childhood: the meaning has changed".

"I feel that today the children have actually lost their childhood much before they should have. If we try to define childhood, an important characteristic of it comes out to be the innocence along with many others like naughtiness, excitement, inquisitiveness etc. This childhood innocence is what is severely lacking today. Children do not reflect their age; they talk and walk ahead of their age. Just go to any park or playground and listen to the discussions of the children with their peer group and you will be surprised to know about the topics they are discussing."

"The culprits are actually many. A major culprit is the media, electronic media in particular. The kind of TV programmes our children watch, it is no surprise that the cases of shootouts and sexual abuse are being reported so often in the schools. With so many channels and endless number of violence and vulgarity-ridden programmes children have such an easy access to the adult material? You must know some parents worried of the fact that children are being spoiled by these TV programmes. Who should be questioned for this?"

"Another equally contributing factor is the overall environment in which the child is growing today. With both the parents working, children are deprived of the attention and love required to properly nurture the young minds. They get unrequited freedom, which is generally misused by them. At the same time, they learn to take their own decisions in the absence of parents: First the small ones like deciding the way to spend their pocket money and ultimately the big ones."

"Considering all these factors, it is no wonder that children are much more mature than their age…but the matter must be taken seriously if we want our children to relive our own memorable childhood. I want my child to ask me the questions like why the sky is blue and where do the stars go in the morning, rather then telling me the answers to these after searching the Internet. Maturity should come with age and experience rather than at the cost of innocent childhood."

However, the notion of 'childhood' has been changing for many years. It would be wrong to think that every child has lived a similar childhood since the notion was discovered. 

"during the Middle Ages children were depicted and seen as being

small adults by the eighteenth century there was a general understanding that ‘childhood’

meant a stage of life which was widely recognised in a number of ways. This

involved the coming of children’s clothing, distinctive from that of adults, an end to

their being depicted as small adults in books and illustrations, as well as the appearance

and wider recognition of children’s games and pastimes and a growing sense of

the innocence of childhood."

"It should be remembered too that in most societies children were needed as part

of the workforce to sustain the economy. In this context it would have been an

inappropriate luxury to spend too much dwelling on the particular needs of childhood."

(Extracts from Roy Lowe, 'Childhood Through The Ages' found: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/26767_03_Maynard_&_Thomas_CH_02.pdf)

Personally I believe that although certain aspects of child innocence have changed, such as the toys children play with and the language and images they are exposed to, they all still go through the same process of being naive, learning and, ultimately, innocence. This is what I hope to display in my photographs, in aim that everyone can relate to certain areas of child innocence.

Child innocence research

"The day we fret about the future is the day we leave our childhood behind"  Patrick Rothfuss, The Name of the Wind

“For children are innocent and love justice, while most of us are wicked and naturally prefer mercy.” 
― G.K. Chesterton

“It is photography itself that creates the illusion of innocence. Its ironies of frozen narrative lend to its subjects an apparent unawareness that they will change or die. It is the future they are innocent of. Fifty years on we look at them with the godly knowledge of how they turne dout after all - who they married, the date of their death - with no thought for who will one day be holding photographs of us.” 
― Ian McEwan, Black Dogs
http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/innocence


"If I could capture the youth, the innocence and the cuteness of a child at that precious time of their early childhood and market it I would be a rich man. The reality is that our lives are enriched by our children and when we capture them in photos or on video we are capturing something very priceless because those memories are something we need to preserve and save so when our children are grown up we will have something to have as a keepsake and a gift to show them to preserve that very special time in their lives."
http://ediann.hubpages.com/hub/The-beauty-of-a-childs-innocence


"Innocence goes deeper than ignorance. It is some mysterious operation of the imagination, the part that can enter into mental universes from which one is soon to be forever excluded. I have my own particular recollection of this.

Every year from when I was of reading age, I was given a Rupert the Bear annual for Christmas and every Christmas day I fell upon it with a passion, losing myself in the mysterious tales of Chinese wizards and sea-gods and wood sprites. Then one year I picked up the annual and could not "get into it". It was just a book with pictures and a story. I could no longer enter its portal and inhabit its world.

Even now I remember the sting of disappointment. My wife thought I was mad when last year I bought a large painting of Rupert from the artist Mark Manning (who has done a series depicting scenes from Nutwood). But I suppose therein lies the explanation.

Innocence is also the growth of self-consciousness, perhaps the "tree of the knowledge of good and evil" referred to in the story of Adam and Eve. Perhaps you are thrown out into a world bled of colour and meaning and spend your life trying to regain it.

But can you regain it? Not in its original form, certainly. But sometimes, now I am growing older, I feel shadows of my ancient innocence in the night sky, in the song of birds, in the earth's breathing out of white and pink blossoms."

Extract from: http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2013/may/10/what-is-childhood-innocence

include photo of my year 1 speech bubble "i don't want to be an adult because my children might be annoying"

What is child innocence?

Everyone can relate to the idea of child innocence, but what is it?

I suppose you could argue that it's a subjective term, as everyone experiences different childhoods and therefore their view of innocence during childhood may contrast to others.

 Personally, I think of child innocence as a form of purity. Young children obviously aren't "grown up" and are blissfully unaware of certain worries in life, such as money or death, therefore enabling them to live in the most care-free way possible. The purity I see within child innocence stems from the fact that young children simply aren't completely socialised. They have no concept of "doing this isn't socially acceptable", such as throwing tantrums in public (although this is obviously socially acceptable if a child does it, but not if an adult did), wearing nappies or stating the obvious which may cause controversy. For example, whilst in a supermarket with my 2 and a half year old nephew, a Muslim woman walked past wearing a full burqa, to which he pointed to the lady and asked me "what is that?". His innocence justifies his question and also justifies the blamelessness of his indadvertedly minorly racist question. This example also has to do with different cultures, but many children ask questions similar to this on a daily basis.

There is also the point that many things adults do, children can't/shouldn't. For example, it seems absurd to put make up on a young child, or dye their hair. There are some aspects of children's fashion that aim to make children look or feel older, such as the on-going discussions of the sexualisation of children through retailers selling bras and inappropriately designed underwear for young children and even toddlers. It is therefore ideologies of adults that help to identify the norms and values of what childhood 'should be'. 

Child innocence is something that you're unaware of when you're experiencing it. You can't identify with child innocence until you 'grow up' and can subsequently look back on your childhood. You could also argue that different age ranges experience different levels of innocence; from being a toddler, to a primary school 4/5 year old, even up to age 10/11. In a way, everyone is still innocent in some way as no one has knowledge about absolutely everything, which would suggest everyone has some form of innocence or naivety in them.