An absent-minded reverie about what her mother was doing back in Britain led Emma Hobson to wonder about how children around the globe might perceive the events of a single day.
This in turn led to Ms Hobson, head of senior art at Greenacres school in Nairobi, Kenya, setting up the Through the Eyes of Children project, a snapshot of children’s lives worldwide on January 31 this year.
Collaborating with two of her students, Evelyn Byaruhanga and Pauline Kamu, she persuaded photographic equipment supplier Fuji to donate 100 disposable cameras. These were sent out to schools across the world, with loose instructions to shoot pictures of the classroom, local transport and buildings, more abstract ideas such as friendship or happiness, and anything else of interest.
The films started returning in early February, and Ms Hobson says: “The project has just snowballed. We planned an exhibition and website for June, and with the films still coming back in, we have already had two book offers.”
Get ‘em while they’re cold; cocnut truck in Trinidad.
Post room; Evelyn Byaruhanga and Pauline Kamu send out the cameras.
Squeaky clean; hand-washing in Belgium.
Stall order; fruit for sale in Romania.
OK bouquet; best friends in Poland.
Pitch in; running to school in Kenya.. Higher! Swinging in Mozambique.
Thai trio; between lessons in Thailand.
Bus lines; transport in South Korea.
Snow fall; essential works in Estonia.
Emma Hobson can be contacted by email on: emmabeth@greenacres.ac.ke
