image production: a research project in the childhood mode

Abstract

This article is part of a research project guided by a methodology for the production of images by children from 2 to 6 years old, developed in the Zona da Mata, in Rondônia. Children's filmic and photographic image productions inspired this inquiry, and suggest  a novel way of thinking about children, childhood and research. Based on the questions, What can children's image productions tell us in a survey carried out in periods of social isolation? and What do children’s representations tell us about their lives beyond school? we trace the thematic pathways taken in their production of photographic images and short videos,  following our subjects as they engender themselves through the production of images and through their verbal commentaries on those images. What can a child do  with a camera in her/his hands? Observing the patterns of their image-making allowed us to enter  temporalities and spatialities that suggest other ways of being in the world, particularly in a time of pandemic. What these young children  communicate to  us through  their images and video footage is the power of experience, of traces, remnants and scraps, revealing a capacity for astonishment at things that may go unnoticed by adults. They invite us to experience other ways of seeing and relating to the world, creating other senses and sensations for research, or even for life itself.