CHILDHOOD FIRST
Client
Childhood First
Story
Childhood First provides specialist therapeutic care and education for children and young people who have experienced difficult and often traumatic childhoods.
The challenge was to show the charities work while protecting the privacy of the children in it’s care.
We developed an approach around a simple idea making portraits without photographing the children Instead, I photographed the life around them, their homes, gardens and schools. The sofas, coats, toys, artwork and murals. The spaces where they live, learn and spend their time.
Alongside these details, I photographed the carers, therapists and other people who create and maintain those safe environments.
Over several years I worked across Childhood First’s different sites, photographing everything from their residential homes and schools to staff, events and fundraising activities. Working in these spaces depended on the trust and the charity of it’s staff and a sensitive approach to every photograph.
The resulting library we created, gave Childhood First a way to tell its own story through photographs specific to it’s work. The photographs have since been used throughout their website and communications, often becoming part of the design itself through crops, colour treatments and backgrounds.
BEYOND THE PHOTOGRAPH
For me, this project captures something central to working with charities - listening carefully, understanding the practical challenges, and finding a visual approach that serves the people and the organisation.
Sometimes that means looking beyond the obvious subject. A small detail or an ordinary space can tell a story that a conventional portrait might miss.
I want to create photographs that charities can keep using - images that feel true to their work and become part of how the communicate, fundraise and connect with people.
