Participatory archiving with children: Reflections on the work of the Children’s Photography Archive

Melissa will focus on her work as Director of the Children’s Photography Archive (CPA), a born-digital archive, likely the only one of its kind, to collect and preserve children’s photography.

With the proliferation of digital devices, children’s photography has become harder to ignore, if not more widespread. Children take photographs of their everyday lives, and art education projects with a focus on photography are much more affordable and accessible. The accessibility and affordability are to be applauded at the same time as acknowledging the new challenges they create. Many of the digital image that are made languish on personal and/or organisational hard drives/clouds often out of sight and out of mind and the environmental footprint of these overstuffed ‘archives’ cannot be underestimated.

Two interrelated issues emerge from here: one of waste, in terms of lost opportunities of what such photographs might tell us about children’s cultures and everyday lives; and another of worth, how to evaluate what is worth keeping for future generations.

In light of this, Melissa will discuss the original curatorial strategy used to set up the CPA as well as ongoing work to think through the many forms that ‘participatory archiving’ with children may take.  

This event will be particularly useful for those interested in the fields of media studies, media sociology, museology studies and childhood studies.

To attend online, please email Hakan Ergül h.ergul@ucl.ac.uk

Related links

• Research in Media Arts and Play (ReMAP)
• Department of Culture, Communication and Media

Image

Wirestock, Inc. / Alamy Stock Photo.