Lit Review

Throughout my project, I have looked at multiple sources to help me to further understand the minds of the youngest generation, in this case, preschoolers.

The source that became my inspiration for this project is Human’s of New York, a social media platform that gives the world a sneak peak into the lives and minds of those around the world. The photographers ask questions and document their responses, taking a photograph to go along with them. The photos that accompany the writing isn’t always a portrait photo, or a photo of their face. For example, some photos could be of their hands, their hair, their back, or even their shoes. Reading through the Human’s of New York posts, I formed the idea to photograph preschoolers and ask questions that allowed the outside world to be exposed to small parts of a preschooler’s mind.

Once I concluded that I wanted to photograph preschoolers, I had to research how to photograph children. Children are often thought to be tricky subjects, due to their short attention span and inability to stay still. I found multiple blogs with photographers depicting what techniques have and haven’t worked while photographing children. The website I found to be the most informative was the Digital Photography school’s website, written by Darlene Hildebrandt. Through years of working with photographing children, she found several tips to be the most productive. The most important tip, in my opinion, is to get down to their level. Instead of taking a photo from above, which gives the viewer of the photograph a sort of “towering over” feeling, kneel down and take the photo at eye level with the child. There were a few more helpful clues, such as keeping an open mind, allowing the child to run the shoot and not have too many boundaries up, and choosing the focus mode carefully.