Let children be children

Let children
be children

I love capturing images of Scarlett and seeing all the changes in her as she grows. She is 10 at the moment, and is growing into a beautiful, caring young woman.

This age is a particularly vulnerable age, where they are introduced to the big wide world and are no longer quite so innocent and full of wonder. Reality sets in and they begin to see that there are pressures they face each and every day. It makes me really sad that our children, especially our daughters, are faced with challenges and pressures from society, and most of all from social media.

On a daily basis they are exposed to images of women baring little resemblance to the appearance they were born with, women who have changed their features so much that they all seem to look like they have been injected with botox and fillers into almost every part of their face.

It is for this reason that I decided to take it upon myself to photograph children, but in particular girls – as they are. Yes, they are styled images, in that I have chosen particular clothing or props to add to the image, but essentially they are images of these girls being themselves and their own kind of beautiful.

I have decided that I will name this body of work Return to Innocence, which is about children being children, being proud and happy in their own skin, being confident in their own body, learning to be themselves and to love their own uniqueness.