Happy snapping: All Saints in SE3
A stocky footballer's leg, a dandelion blown in the wind, and a quizzical little girl looking down through a hoop were snapped. The location was Blackheath, the time early-afternoon, a group of children aged six and seven were eagerly taking digital and manual photographs.
The ten children from All Saints Church of England Primary school were snapping their local surroundings as part of a pilot photography project. Later that week, Margot Wallström, Vice-President of the European Commission looked at the results during her official one day visit to London.
The brief was simple. The children were told how ten Magnum photographers had documented one of the ten countries which joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.¹ The professionals had chosen the subjects which interested them - homes, animals, petrol stations and hair do's. Similarly, the children chose and photographed subjects which they liked in SE3.The children were given minimal instruction:- to make sure the camera didn't joggle, to be spontaneous, to frame images off centre and to avoid posing. They worked in groups of three, shared cameras and had a limited amount of film. Within an hour most were confident to choose and frame subjects, discard images which they were not pleased with and to snap away.
The results were strong, funny and uncontrived. Bicycles, hoops, Lego blocks and lunch boxes were zoomed in on. Taken from the children's vantage point, angles were often quirky.
Back in the class room the pictures were seen and discussed on a white board, a screen onto which the photographs can be projected and magnified. The pictures offered plenty of scope for follow-up work in art and literacy.²
At the European Commission, the children's results looked strikingly at home in the context of the exhibition Euro Visions: The New Europeans.³ 
Martin Parr's succulent picture of a Slovenian sausage and bean soup was complemented by school dinners - a photograph of fish fingers, bread and butter, baked beans and ketchup and an image of teetering towers of green plastic cups coupled with a teachers waist line. 
Peter Zachmann's Budapest Interior - an imposing armchair swathed in red in melancholic lighting was joined by a photo of a child-sized plastic yellow seat in a sunny classroom. A frieze of jets (Peter Marlow; Nicosia International Airport, abandoned in 1974) found a parallel with a rack of red bicycles with shiny bicycle bells.
'Is this what you do all day?' asked Mrs Wallström on meeting the children whilst surrounded by their pictures of skipping, quoits and football. 'Oh no' said Chris, aged seven, 'We work and work and work, and then we have lunch and then we do some more work before we go home.'
'Does this photo show friendship?' continued the Vice-President sympathetically, as she looked at an image of two little boys lying on the grass. 'Well actually it's about sneaking up on people without them realising', came the eager response from Jack, aged six. Jack was grasping the art of photography fast.
'Do you want to be footballers when you grow up?' asked the Vice-President pointing to one of a number of pictures of footballs coupled with out of focus, fuzzy foot work? To which there was a resounding 'Yes' from all ten children.
Both Mrs Wallström and the children seemed delighted by the photographs, and by meeting one another- shrieks of laughter and confident conversations resounded from the gallery space at the European Commission. There was talk of favourite food; the Vice-President favoured meatballs, over Gabriela's choice of a Chinese take-away. There was a big focus on Sven-Göran Eriksson, 'Have you met him?' asked a six year old - possibly not expecting the answer to be 'Yes.' 'You know England is going to beat Sweden in the World Cup' the child continued rather bluntly.
With their newly gained confidence behind the camera, the children also documented their trip to central London. Back at school there is an array of photographs of the Capital - stretch limos, double-decker buses, Horse Guards on parade with 'long fair hair' (as perceived by one six year old) and a lady politician.
The children had no preconceived notion of what a good photograph was, having not yet seen great examples of documentary photographers like Cartier-Bresson and Lartigue. However, their vision produced some startlingly good pictures. Perhaps the Masters of documentary photography can be looked at next week.
Footnotes
¹ Cyprus, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Slovenia joined the European Union on 1 May 2004.
² The schools photography project tied in with QCA: Art - Unit 2A Picture this! Here is a lesson plan you can use based on this project.
³ Highlights of Euro Visions: The New Europeans, by Magnum photographers ran from 9-23 May 2006 at The European Commission, 8 Storey's Gate. A list of current and future exhibitions can be viewed here: http://ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/information/exhibitions/index_en.htm