As someone who grew up with a mum as a photographer, cameras had always been a strong presence in my childhood. Whether it was my mum letting me use up the last few shots on a roll of film or helping her pick the best print, the art of photography was always something I appreciated. But it was also more than this. The different ways in which people go about photography have always interested me – the way you can give two people a camera and they can take completely different photos of exactly the same thing. The ability to see a reproduction of what another sees, to see as they do, is a wonderful thing.

Photography is increasingly being utilised in many ways by researchers and charity workers alike, in an attempt to see through the eyes of others, particularly children. David Schlenker, a US volunteer inspired by Kids with Cameras to visit India, taught some of the children at his centre photography to get them to better express themselves, something that the Indian state school education system does not actively encourage. In 2001, Lorraine Young and Hazel Barrett of Brunel and Coventry Universities conducted action research in Kampala, Uganda, using these visual methods with street children.

Young and Barrett were interested in researching the socio-spatial behaviour of street children. As white, adult females, there was a limit to the level of integration into the lives of the street children they could achieve. To minimise interference, they distributed fifteen disposable cameras amongst a group of street children and asked them to complete twenty-four hour photo diaries of their daily activities. As well as capturing the harsh realities of their lives, the photos also stimulated the children to open up in discussions. Young and Barrett reported that it became an act of self-esteem with the children being surprised at being trusted with the cameras. They also let the kids keep their photos, something they would never normally have been able to do.

Zana Briski, a Cambridge alumna, used photography to try and recapture childhood in a project she ran in the red light district of Kolkata. After spending months living amongst the women and their families, Zana became very close to many of the children and decided she would try to teach them photography.

She taught them how to take photos and then edit the films and prints, allowing the children to embrace their creativity and boost their confidence, as well as giving them a workable skill. This project became the focus of the 2004 Oscar-winning documentary Born Into Brothels, which follows the progress of some of the kids as she tries to help them out of the brothels, partly through photography. From this, Zana founded a non-profit organization called Kids with Cameras to promote the work of the children and to raise funds for the community.

This summer I was involved in two volunteering schemes through the university –Project Why, based in Delhi, and Cambridge Volunteers in Nepal. It was there that my camera went on its own adventure, seen through the eyes of children. In India I visited a few of Project Why’s ventures and, while at the Shanti Gyan Boarding School outside Delhi, I met Mahir. She asked if she could use my camera. After I handed it over, she avidly began taking pictures of her world–her friends’ gymnastic exploits, picking and arranging flowers, grouping her teachers and friends together for shots. She was very excited to see her completed work as I played them back and went to show all her friends.

I spent six weeks teaching in Nepal and here my camera disappeared again. The kids at the school were by no means unused to cameras, but they were usually the subject of the photographs rather than the photographers. I wasn’t concerned about its frequent vanishing acts and I loved receiving it post-escapade, finding which corner of the school they had escaped to. Sometimes they would sneak in and take pictures of their friends sleeping; other times they would take pictures from the roof of the playground and town below. I received photos of deities, national heroes (from revolutionaries to poets), Blair-Witch-esque movies filmed in the darkened upstairs dining room and images of them doing their homework, showing that they wanted to appear studious as well as slightly manic.

Seeing through the children’s eyes, I felt I understood more what the school meant for them. Although these children were by no means in the situation of those in Kampala and Kolkata, they experienced the same kind of pride from their work: sharing their worlds, through their eyes, with friends and distant family via social media.