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.