ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on two differing poles in the contemporary photography of children. It examines how children photograph themselves and how they are portrayed by contemporary women photographers. The book then reflects on the melancholia inherent in the family album, the memories that photographs can bring to the fore, a hot summer afternoon in suburbia recovering from a childhood illness which the photograph re-presents sharply as history, the uncanny accuracy of photographs as children look for signs of who they are now in what they were then and always draw attention to loss and mortality. In 1994, photographer Trish Brennan worked with a group of children on the Holly Street Estate in Hackney, East London. Trish Brennan also made a video in which the children spoke about their lives on the estate.
