At an April TEDx education event in San Francisco, Victor Diaz, founder of REALM Charter Schools in Berkeley, put out a question for educators to ask kids: What did it take you to get to school today? For some kids, Victor explained, we could only imagine — and congratulate them on actually making it to class.
James Mollison's large-format photos of kid's bedrooms around the world reminds me of Diaz's questions. Where Children Sleep shows portraits kids from the US, Mexico, Brazil, to England, Italy, Israel and the West Bank, Kenya, Senegal, Lesotho, Nepal, China and India with a photograph of where they sleep, along with an extended caption that tells the story of each child. From simply the cover jacket text, we learn of Kaya in Tokyo, whose proud mother spends $1,000 a month on her dresses; Bilal the Bedouin shepherd boy, who sleeps
outdoors with his father's herd of goats; the Nepali girl Indira, who has worked in a granite quarry since she was three; and Ankhohxet, the Kraho boy who sleeps on the floor of a hut deep in the Amazon jungle.
Mollison spent two years, through the support of Save the Children (Italy), photographing Where Children Sleep, and the result creates a mix of emotion and fascination that resonates with both adults and kids. (The book was actually written for children ages 9 to 13.) While genre of photo essays picturing people in personal scenes isn't new — and the approach can sometimes feel manipulative in either emotions or agenda — Mollison's portraits feel far more informative than judgmental.
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