The representation of childhood in photographic images : a visual culture study : Malta 1901-1964

Abstract

When I think about childhood, I find myself returning again and again to the vision offered by the Montessori philosophy, a vision I hold close and believe in deeply. Montessori describes the child as innately capable, curious, and full of potential, provided they are given the right environment to flourish. It is a view of the child not as an empty vessel awaiting to be filled by adult knowledge, but as a whole person already in possession of an inner guide. At the same time, I have often felt a deep unease when observing how, in practice, adults tend to construct childhood according to their own needs, fears, and ambitions. Despite well-meaning intentions, many adult systems shape and restrain rather than support a child’s natural unfolding. There is a painful gap between the child as they are and the child as they are imagined or moulded by the adult world. This tension between the child's true nature and the constructions imposed upon them forms the foundation of my reflections. It is from this space of questioning that my research emerged. I chose photography as my medium because it allowed me to engage directly with the delicate interplay between the child's presence and the adult’s framing gaze. Working within a visual culture methodology, I came to see that, in capturing images of children, the photographer inevitably captures, whether subtly or overtly, the culture of the time with all its historical and socio-cultural nuances. Photographs are never neutral but they function as rich cultural artifacts that reveal not only the surface appearance of childhood but also the deeper structures, expectations, and tensions of the society in which the child lives. Reflecting deeply on these images, both individually and collectively, allows for the moving beyond surface readings that often manifest as sweetness or nostalgia in conventional responses to historical photographs of children. Such sentimental reactions risk flattening the child's experience into mere decoration, overlooking the profound realities of what it meant to grow up within particular cultural and social frameworks. My aim has been to look beyond the initial emotional response. Susan Sontag speaks about the ‘ultimate wisdom of the photographic image’ which says: ‘This is the surface. Now think - or rather feel, intuit, what is beyond it, what the reality must be like if it looks this way’. The photographs in this study do not merely depict children; they expose the cultural, historical, and ideological frameworks that shaped their representation. Of course, today, children have more tools than ever to author their own images, using technology to share glimpses of their lives and craft their own narratives. Yet even with this new agency, they remain influenced by broader cultural expectations, social pressures, and commercial influences. Moreover, once an image enters the public realm, children, like all subjects, lose control over the gaze of the viewer which remains shaped by the assumptions, desires, and biases of the wider world. In the historical period I explore, from 1901 to 1964, the dynamics were even more stark. Without the means to present themselves directly, children’s representation remained almost entirely in the hands of adult photographers and audiences. The construction of childhood through images, therefore, reveals not only the child’s partial visibility but also the cultural forces that framed and often overshadowed their presence. Through these photographic images, and through a careful questioning of how they were made and how they are seen, I hope to glimpse something of the real child, not only as they were shaped by their time, but as they both adapted and resisted it. It is this layered and complex vision of childhood that I have sought to honour throughout my research.