This one certainly isn’t for the younger children. But it is aimed at children ages 9 to 13 and I’m sure will definitely interest a lot of parents as well as those into art and photography. Which is why I loved it when I came across it!
Where Children Sleep is a fascinating project and book that was James Mollison’s answer to exploring children’s rights…
I found myself thinking about my bedroom: how significant it was during my childhood, and how it reflected what I had and who I was… I didn’t want it just to be about ‘needy children’ in the developing world, but rather something more inclusive, about children from all types of situations. It seemed to make sense to photograph the children themselves, too, but separately from their bedrooms, using a neutral background. My thinking was that the bedroom pictures would be inscribed with the children’s material and cultural circumstances ‘the details that inevitably mark people apart from each other’ while the children themselves would appear in the set of portraits as individuals, as equals, just as children.
Each pair of photographs is accompanied by an extended caption that tells of the story of the child in question about Kaya in Tokyo whose proud mother spends $1000 per month on her dresses; about Bilal the Bedouin shepherd boy who sleeps out with his father’s herd of goats; about the Nepali girl Indira, who has worked in a granite quarry since she was three years old, and about Ankhohxet, the Kraho boy who sleeps on the floor of a hut deep in the Amazon jungle.
Such an inspiring project that intends to interest and engage children in the details and lives of other children around the world. I think this has just as striking a message for adults and is also a really beautiful photographic essay.
And as if it wasn’t good enough to buy based on that information alone the front cover uses glow-in-the-dark ink! Definitely one for the beautiful books collection! Available at good ol’ WHSmith.
Debs
