New Book and Exhibition Explore Why Children Are Drawn to Photography

A new book and accompanying exhibition are examining a question that has received little academic attention: why do so many people pick up a camera for the first time as children, and what do those early images reveal?

The project is led by Annebella Pollen, professor of visual and material culture at the University of Brighton, who argues that photography is one of the most widely practiced hobbies in the world, typically taken up in childhood. Despite its popularity, she says the personal and cultural impact of early photography, particularly from the era before smartphones and digital cameras, has not been closely studied.

A formative habit

Pollen draws a comparison to a familiar cultural touchstone: the question of what record someone bought first, often treated as a marker of identity formation. She suggests that picking up a camera for the first time can carry similar weight.

"My generation is used to being asked: 'What was the first record you bought?'" Pollen said. "Music is seen as a key part of identity formation, but what if something similar crystallizes when we handle a camera?"

Pollen also shared a personal account of her own introduction to photography, recalling that her earliest photographs were taken around the same time she developed a childhood crush. "I certainly remember my first photos, because they coincided with me falling in love, as a 10-year-old, with a beautiful boy at school," she said. "I pursued him with my camera."

Looking beyond the smartphone era

The book and exhibition aim to look past the ubiquity of modern cameraphones to ask how the habit of taking pictures actually begins, and what early photographs, often overlooked or discarded, can tell us about the people who took them. By focusing on childhood photography specifically, the project seeks to open up a part of photographic history that has largely gone unexamined.