Child's Play

Child's Play is an exhibition which comprises several photographic bodies of work around the core themes of child-portraiture and photography in the community. Beyond this, it addresses issues of self-image and self-esteem, and of the individual and the family unit within the local environment. It explores both the visual conventions of the snap-shot and the constructed studio-portrait while forcing a re-evaluation of the hierarchical use of the terms 'amateur' and 'professional' by show-casing imagery from a variety of sources and from a selection of photographers with vastly differing levels of experience in the medium.

Cath Pearson's panoramic photographs entitled Family Album, depict everyday events: a child straining to dry her hands in a public toilet, two children bouncing on an unmade bed. In contrast, Caroline Molloy's Identity Parade consists of stark, formal, black and white portraits of identical twins. The portraits of children by The Bentilee Women's Photography Group, derived from a series of twenty workshops, reveal a variety of portraiture styles by women with little or no previous experience in the medium. Extracts from If I were orange... instigated by American photographer Wendy Ewald (commissioned by the Nederlands Foto Instituut) comprise photographs made with three groups of Dutch children. These extraordinary photographs expose the discrepancy between the commercial image of a country and its contemporary identity. A community initiative, set up by The Holly Street Public Arts Trust which encouraged local children on a London estate to keep a visual diary, displays a cultural richness and diversity seen through the eyes of the children and preserved in large colour photographs. A selection from Lizzie Coombes' Girls Don't Move and produced in collaboration with students at the Ridings School in Halifax explores students' attitudes to sport and leisure. The result is a series of photographs which simultaneously combine a sense of intimacy and artifice.

Thanks to all our sponsors and funders, especially Staffordshire University, West Midlands Arts, Stoke City Council and Arts 4 Everyone (awarded to The Bentilee Women's Photography Group)

This project fed directly into our publication I Spy Representations of Childhood.