Brighton professor's research shows history of children's photos

The history of photographs taken by children has been revealed at a new exhibition.

University of Brighton researcher Annebella Pollen curated Snap Happy!, which opens at The Photographers' Gallery in London on Wednesday.

The show and an accompanying book were informed by the visual and material culture professor's four-year study of children's photographs over the generations.

"They may seem inconsequential, they may seem juvenile, foolish, amateurish, but I wanted to look at them closely and to take them seriously," Pollen told the BBC.

She said she had found examples of children's photography "from the late Victorian era right up to the present day".

The researcher added: "Photography was long something that was promoted only to boys but I discovered through looking at a lot of girls story papers, girls comics that these girl photographer figures appear."

Pollen's research explored what children snapped pictures of when they first get behind the camera and what their images tell us about childhood and creativity.

She had previously studied amateur photography and how cameras evolved from specialist equipment into a mass form of visual communication, according to the university.

Her book Whippersnappers: How Children Became Photographers traces the photography from school clubs in the 1880s, through to radical 1970s workshops and on to the digital age.

The exhibition, which runs until 21 February, includes moving images not featured in the book.

The archive collection on display includes advertising, manuals, comics and toys, as well as pictures taken of family, friends and pets as school projects or for experimentation.

Clare Grafik, curator at The Photographers' Gallery, said there was "something very attractive" to children about the analogue process and "a lot of young people are now re-engaging with analogue photography".

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