A Fascinating Look At Kids' Bedrooms

The following is a selection from a photo essay by photographer James Mollison; in it, he contrasts a photo of a child away from their room and a photo of what they happen call home (or a lack thereof.) He explains,

When I was asked me to come up with an idea for engaging with children’s rights, I found myself thinking about my bedroom: how significant it was during my childhood, and how it reflected what I had and who I was. It occurred to me that a way to address some of the complex situations and social issues affecting children would be to look at the bedrooms of children in all kinds of different circumstances.

From the start, I didn’t want it just to be about ‘needy children’ in the developing world, but rather something more inclusive, about children from all types of situations. It seemed to make sense to photograph the children themselves, too, but separately from their bedrooms, using a neutral background. My thinking was that the bedroom pictures would be inscribed with the children’s material and cultural circumstances ‘the details that inevitably mark people apart from each other‘ while the children themselves would appear in the set of portraits as individuals, as equals‘ just as children.

The photo series is both fascinating and, at times, unsettling — some of the children have ornate bedrooms filled with toys, while others are sleeping outside with little-to-no amenities.