Photographing children at the Garstang Museum
Warning: this post contains some photos of mummified human remains.
Comedian WC Fields once, famously, said “never work with animals or children”, because of their unpredictable nature.
I guess he has a point. But, do I agree with him?
When Garstang Museum curator Gina said she wanted get some photos of children in the galleries to help promote the museum, I offered her the use of my children, and me and my camera. I gathered together a gaggle of children, consisting of my two girls, some of their cousins and some of their school friends, and brought them up to the museum for a few hours.
The children – and a few parents – were treated to an exclusive session in the museum, with treasure hunts, a curator at their disposal, and an object handling session. The only requirement was that they let me tag along and photograph it all.
Was it all chaos and hell?
Let’s find out …
Exploring the galleries
First up was getting some photos of the children in the galleries. To get them exploring, Gina printed out a museum treasure hunt for them to do. They dove straight in, exploring each room, finding the objects in the quiz – the younger ones just ticking off objects when they found them, the older ones answering the accompanying questions also.
While they busied themselves having fun, I bobbed from room to room, snapping away.
The children seemed quite at home being around the Garstang Mummy (as children often seem to be with mummies).
They weren’t frightened, or went ‘ew!’; rather, they seemed to be just respectful and thoughtful about the whole thing.
I had a bit of fun with some of the girls at the case displaying objects from Neith-hotep’s tomb; because it’s in the centre of the room, I got down and looked up through the glass at them to get a different perspective. It’s one of the only photos I took where I actually asked them to stand still for a moment and wait for me to take the photo.
Which they did, without fuss.
Although the galleries can be quite dark in places, I chose not to use any external lighting or flashes, instead just bumping up the ISO when needed. Having lights flashing at them would’ve distracted my subjects from having fun, and we would have lost that ‘in the moment’ thing. Plus, I’d run the risk of catching reflections of the flash in my photos from all the glass cases around me.
And anyway, the lights inside many of the cases created lovely highlights on the children’s faces as they searched for the whereabouts of their hunted treasures.
Having a curator at your disposal meant they got to ask questions about anything that piqued their interest, including the child’s coffin that contains not a child, but a cat mummy.
The Garstang being small, stair-free and secure meant that even the toddler could be let free to wander and wonder.
Not spotting much chaos yet.
Object handling session
When we’d finished the treasure hunt, and had some lunch (and a thorough hand wash!), it was time for the object-handling session. Gina had chosen a few objects that were small, sturdy and capable of being handled by children, and they thought this was just amazing
With beads and alabaster pots, faience amulets and stone palettes, there was plenty to explore and talk about.
The handling session was held in the museum’s teaching room, which has a lovely, big table in the middle.
The table made it really easy to move around and get shots of everyone from lots of different angles without having to disturb or distract the session.
I migh have, at points, perhaps even climbed up onto the table to get some of my photos …
The children adored the session, and felt very special to have been able to actually hold these amazing, ancient objects in their own hands.
They stuck meticulously to the rules about holding the objects over the table and being very careful.
The nearest we came to something going wrong was when the string holding some beads together broke and the beads went rolling across the table.
But, that’s because the string itself was about 100 years old, and was nothing to do with how well it was being handled.
Everyone joined in with helping pick the beads up.
Still searching for that chaos …
‘Outtake’ photos
And now for my favourite part. The outtakes.
The purpose of this session was to get documentary-style photos of children enjoying the Garstang. I didn’t want them looking at the camera, or posing. It wouldn’t work, because that brings me and my camera into the story – a story I’m not supposed to be a part of.
However, when you’re documenting events like this, you take a lot of photos (I took 318 photos over the space of two-and-a-half hours). This means you have a good chance of capturing some really fun moments – moments that aren’t really part of the story we’re trying to create, but ones that capture beautifully life, humanity, and that wonderfully fun side of children.
There’s those moments when you get a big grin, because they’re being photographed by their mum.
Or they look straight into the camera, asking you a question.
Or when someone gets a stern word from her mum (who you can see reflected in the glass) because she’s got a bit over-excited …
… and then has to have a moment of quiet contemplation by herself to calm down before getting back to the treasure hunt.
Or capturing the two boys, who’d never met before, getting on really rather well.
Or catching JR – who had managed to stay away from my camera for most of the day – as he popped up from behind the table having just plugged in some tech.
Or finding some of the children playing games under the table while they waited for us to clear up.
I see lots of fun, one brief moment of overwhelm from one child, but really no problems with chaos and unpredictability.
Why?
Because the children were engaged and having fun. They had no reason to act up or become bored and troublesome.
So, would I agree with WC Fields about never working with children? I guess I can see where he’s coming from, if you like things to be organised and efficient and simple. But, in all honestly?
Nah.
Organised, efficient and simple can be awfully boring sometimes.
Children are just wonderful to photograph if the purpose is to capture them rather than pose them. They’re so fun and unassuming, and always up for a laugh.
I’d work with them any day.
A note about the image processing
Apart from the photos of the object handling session (which I think work better in colour), I’ve chosen to put these photos into black and white.
The copies I gave to the Garstang are all in colour, as they want to showcase the museum itself, as well as the children’s interaction with the displays. Which is what the colour versions are great for.
But, here, I have my own story I want to tell.
And what is that story?
It’s the story of the moments, of the people, and of their interactions with each other; of their exploration of, and curiosity about their connection with the past. Rather being distracted by all the colour, the black and white keeps the focus the story and the people themselves.
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Julia
Unless otherwise credited, all photos in this post are © Julia Thorne. If you’d like to use any of my photos in a lecture, presentation or blog post, please don’t just take them; drop me an email via my contact page. If you share them on social media, please link back to this site or to one of my social media accounts. Thanks!
