Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/returning-the-gaze-photography-with-young-children/5027021/
*Photos can be found in the pdf version of this article.
My favorite thing to do as an early childhood educator has always been to give young children a camera and invite them to take photographs. It is a rule of mine to always give the children license to take as many photographs as possible. Film comes 10 to a pack and there are four interested children. Everyone will take two, and then whoever seems the most adamant will take an extra. The science is not exact.
Basil is holding the camera, a bright blue iteration of a popular model of an instant camera, over a bench. Her attention is focused on the twig atop the bench. This is her chosen subject.
“You can take a picture of anything you want, anything that is important,” I remind her.
Deep inside I want something else to be important to her—something that makes sense to me. Something that fits in with my own set of expectations.
She snaps the picture—a minute later a small stick is visible on an overexposed background. And she is proud. She donates the photograph to our classroom chronicle, and then returns to play.
Photographs are a significant part of our contemporary material ...