William Wegman Dress Up Batty Design: Empire Design Studio © Hyperion Books for Children, New York, 2004

L is for Look invites visitors of all ages on an interactive journey of discovery through the history of children’s and young adult photography books, from the early experiments of the 1930s to the present day. The exhibition brings together around one hundred international children’s photography books that stand out for their original and creative use of photography. Drawing on key figures in the history of photography, including Aenne Biermann, Dominique Darbois and Tana Hoban, the exhibition illustrates how educational concepts and social perceptions of childhood in the Western world have changed over the past 100 years. Their publications reflect not only aesthetic developments, but also changes in educational concepts and the changing social position of children in the Western world.

With the advent of new image-based teaching methods in the early 20th century, photographs found their way into a wide variety of children’s literature, from picture books to fiction. The photo book in particular has proven to be a collaborative medium. While photography helped to revitalise the genre, the collaboration between graphic designers, artists, illustrators and authors also created new and very specific uses for the photographic form.

Female photographers play a key role in this publishing genre. Children’s photo books combine two areas that have historically often been considered feminine: child-rearing and photographic portraits of children. In the 1970s, this culminated in the emergence of a specific genre that contributed to shaping young readers and their view of the world around them.

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