Camera Obscura: Through the eyes of a child

5 min readMay 6, 2020

Inspired by the Wordless Wednesday postings from the coil community I decided to upload pictures that my 4 year old has taken with his toy camera, but first a little context…

With the advancement of technology, most of us carry in our pockets everyday a device that only a few years ago, the specifications would have considered it to be a high end camera. The saying goes the best camera is the one you always have with you, and goodness me are we taking lots of pictures.

Living in the picturesque Vienna it’s not long after leaving your front door that you are stumbling over people taking pictures. Walking through Vienna’s iconic Naschmarkt is akin to a selfie stick gauntlet like something out of the TV Show Gladiators

With imitation being a major factor in the growth of our children, it is now an almost a development stage in itself when your child asks you if they can take a picture. God help us.

Rather than lead him down the path of generic portraits in front of landmarks, photos that have been taken a thousand times before.. or perish the thought half naked selfies, I decided to steer his interest in photography into a learning opportunity.

I bought a cheap children’s digital camera from Tyhbelle on Amazon

Something fun for him that he can carry around his neck when we go on photo missions or if we go for a ride on our bicycle. I have taught him how to turn it on and how to take a picture. I feel if I show him the extra features, or how to review his pictures this will distract him from the main goal: to take a picture. (Although he has since discovered that there is a rear facing selfie camera, leaving a series of grotesque face impressions)

Our first lesson or theme derived from something I learnt at University:

“punctum; for punctum is also: sting, speck, cut, little hole — and also a cast of the dice. A photograph’s punctum is that accident which pricks me (but also bruises me, is poignant to me” Roland Barthes — Camera Lucida

I have tried to put across to him that he should try and capture something that really interests him, something that jumps out at him, stings him.. also with a little help if I spot something that I think would achieve this I give him a little nudge, “Wouldn’t that be a really cool photograph?.”

In the beginning he went around taking pictures of his drawings, his toys, me, his favourite characters when they came on the screen, oh and his feet (so many pictures of his feet) but as he was left to his own devices he started to really capture things from his perspective, how he sees the world.

Looking through his photos I started to realise he had two factors which gives him a little edge in some of his photos.

He hasn’t learnt that taking pictures in certain situations is socially frowned upon, and if I find him in a situation where he is about to take a picture he shouldn’t, I gently stop him and tell him why, BUT, with this lack of fear there is no hesitation, and especially in regards to street photography it’s actually a real plus.

I also find that people are a lot more forgiving when a child is taking a picture of them. Either they think the camera is not real, or there are less fears of something bad becoming of that photo and they usually smile.

I remember listening to a Ted Talk from David Yarrow talking about his Nature Photography

He talks about trying to keep the line of eyesight lower than the subject which helps capture character, creates intimacy, elicits interest and immersion.

Being 4 years old he naturally has a lower line of eyesight. Some of his pictures are taken from a vantage point looking upwards, where unless you were crouching down all the time you wouldn’t necessarily see quite often.