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	James Mollison
	*Where Children Sleep*

The photos reprinted below are from Where Children Sleep (2010), a collection of photographer James Mollison’s portraits of children from around the world and the rooms in which they sleep. When he embarked on the project, Mollison says, “I soon realized that my own experience of having a ‘bedroom’ simply doesn’t apply to so many kids.” Along with each set of photographs, he includes biographical details about each child to provide context for the portraits. Born in Kenya, Mollison grew up in England and currently lives with his family in Venice, and his work has been featured in many international publications.

For a closer look, click on each image to enlarge it.

Lay Lay is four years old. The cream she has on her face is made from the bark of the thanaka tree, used to condition and protect the skin. Lay Lay lives in Mae Sot, Thailand, close to the border with Burma. When her mother died, no other members of her family came to claim her, so she was placed in an orphanage. She shares this home with twenty-one other nursery-aged children. The orphanage consists of two rooms. During the day, one room is the classroom and the other is a dining room. At night, these rooms become bedrooms. The tables are pushed to one side and mats are rolled out for the children to sleep on. Each child has one drawer in which to keep their belongings. Lay Lay does not have many belongings—just a few clothes. All that is known of her background is that she is from an ethnic group of people called the Karen, one of the persecuted minority ethnic groups which make up about forty percent of the Burmese population. Lay Lay and her mother fled from the brutal Burmese military dictatorship and arrived in Thailand as refugees.

Jivan is four years old. He lives with his parents in a skyscraper in Brooklyn, New York. From his bedroom window, he can see across the East River to New York’s Manhattan Island and the Williamsburg Suspension Bridge, which connects it to Brooklyn. Jivan has his own bedroom with an en-suite bathroom and a toy cupboard. The room was designed by Jivan’s mother, who is an interior designer. His father is a DJ and music producer. Jivan’s school is only a ten minute walk away. To gain a place at his school, Jivan had to take a test to prove that he can mix socially with other children. He found this quite stressful as he is a very shy boy. His parents were also interviewed before he was accepted by the school. Jivan’s favorite foods are steak and chocolate. He would like to be a fireman when he grows up.

Kaya is four years old. She lives with her parents in a small apartment in Tokyo, Japan. Most apartments in Japan are small because land is very expensive to buy and there is such a large population to accommodate. Kaya’s bedroom is every little girl’s dream. It is lined from floor to ceiling with clothes and dolls. Kaya’s mother makes all Kaya’s dresses—up to three a month, usually. Now Kaya has thirty dresses and coats, thirty pairs of shoes, sandals and boots, and numerous wigs. (The pigtails in this picture are made from hairpieces.) Her friends love to come around to try on her clothes. When she goes to school, however, she has to wear a school uniform. Her favorite foods are meat, potatoes, strawberries, and peaches. She wants to be a cartoonist when she grows up, drawing Japanese anime cartoons.

Home for this four-year-old boy and his family is a mattress in a field on the outskirts of Rome, Italy. The family came from Romania by bus, after begging on the streets for enough money to pay for their tickets (€100 per adult and €80 per child). When they first arrived in Rome, they camped in a tent, but the police threw them off the site because they were trespassing on private land and did not have the correct documents. Now the family sleeps together on the mattress in the open. When it rains, they hastily erect a tent and use umbrellas for shelter, hoping they will not be spotted by the police. They left Romania without identity documents or work papers and so are unable to obtain legal employment. This boy sits by the curbside while his parents clean car windshields at traffic lights, to earn thirty to fifty cents a time. No one from the boy’s family has ever been to school. His parents cannot read or write.

Indira lives with her parents, brother and sister near Kathmandu in Nepal. Her house has only one room, with one bed and one mattress. At bedtime, the children share the mattress on the floor. Indira is seven years old and has worked at the local granite quarry since she was three. The family is very poor so everyone has to work. There are 150 other children working at the quarry, some of whom will lose their sight because they do not have goggles to protect their eyes from stone splinters. Indira works five or six hours a day and then helps her mother with household chores such as cleaning and cooking. Her favorite food is noodles. She also attends school, which is a thirty minute walk away. She does not mind working at the quarry but would prefer to be playing. She would like to be a Nepalese dancer when she grows up.

Li is ten years old and lives in an apartment block in Beijing, China, with her parents. She is an only child—as a result of the Chinese government’s “one child per family” policy, introduced to control population growth. Families with more than one child are usually penalized. Li goes to a school nearby, where she enjoys learning math, singing, and music. She is a perfectionist and will spend up to three hours each night completing her homework to the highest standard. She also attends ballet classes twice a week after school. Three times during her school life, she will have to attend a compulsory army summer camp organized by the People’s Liberation Army. In preparation for this she has to attend army training. Li does not want to be in the army when she grows up. She wants to be a policewoman so that she can protect people.

Starting a Conversation: Respond to “Where Children Sleep”
	In the text boxes below, reflect on the ideas presented in Mollison’s photo essay by responding to the following questions:

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A reflective photo essay such as this one might not have a strictly defined thesis statement. But how would you describe the main idea of Mollison’s work? What is the dominant impression created by his mix of words and pictures?
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While he acknowledges the issues of poverty and wealth that inform his photos, Mollison says, “There is no agenda to the book other than my own journey and curiosity, and wanting to share in pictures and words the stories that I found interesting, or that moved me.” In what ways does this statement fit with the purpose of a reflective document? What changes do you think Mollison would have made to his approach if he had, in fact, been creating an analytical or argumentative photo essay?
Question

As you look at the photographs and their accompanying text, consider this statement from Mollison: “The book is written and presented for an audience of 9–13 year olds . . . intended to interest and engage children in the details of the lives of other children around the world, and the social issues affecting them, while also being a serious photographic essay for an adult audience.” How successfully do you think Mollison’s work reaches each of those audiences? What do you see in Mollison’s writing style and in the composition of his photographs that would appeal to adults and to older children? What do you think members of each audience — 9–13 year olds, older teens, and adults — would take away from his work?
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Why do you suppose that Mollison chose to use color images? Would black-and-white photographs have had as much impact, more impact, or less impact? Why do you think so?
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Consider how Mollison’s photographs might have been different if he had chosen to focus on one country or region of the world. How would his audience and their expectations of his work have changed, and how would they have remained the same?

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