Whippersnappers tells the history of children as photographers, from school societies in the 1880s, via post-war camera clubs and radical 1970s workshops, to the coming of digital cameras.
She shows how photography was presented and promoted to children – by camera companies, comics, and teachers – and how the children themselves chose to use it. They include the girls whose trick photographs of the Cottingley Fairies fooled the nation, and the family given cameras and limitless film for a year by a national newspaper.
Tracing photography’s movement from elite pastime to accessible hobby, including a wealth of photos taken by children – of pets and friends, teachers and toys, fairies and ghosts –
Whippersnappers presents a unique child’s-eye view of the world, seen through the camera.
