About: A Child's View From Behind the Lens

According to the article “Photos by a Four Year Old” by Mike Rowehl which was posted last December 23, 2004 at www.bitsplitter.net, the author was taking a picture of the Christmas tree at his parent’s place when his four year old niece spotted him and wanted to take pictures too. So, he released her unsupervised for about half an hour just to see what was on his phone when she came back.

Personally, when I first saw the pictures, I was a bit surprised. Are those pictures really taken by a four year old girl? I agree with what Mike has felt initially upon seeing the images for the first time. I also asked myself if his niece actually knew what she was doing. As a young one, I didn’t expect that she actually knew what to capture and the plus thing was – there was creativity in the way she took her images.

The picture that I love most from among the three is the picture of her reflection in an ornament on the Christmas tree. I was curious about what came out of her mind and had this idea as a good subject. It’s truly creative, in a way, even if the photo is not that perfectly taken. With this picture, I also agree with Mike that his niece definitely understands what she’s doing. What she did was to go out of her way and find subjects that didn’t only look interesting but pointed to an understanding that she was creating something. Quite impressive, right?

Indeed, if the joy of sharing photos online is all about capturing the random everyday events in our lives, then even a photo taken by a four year old or even younger must be pure gold. After all, this young, creative mind has her own definition and interpretation of art that only she can comprehend.