Becoming

As part of Creative Schools initiative, I was presented with the opportunity to work in a local, all boys, primary school. I began thinking about how to conceptually approach working with this group of young people. My original thinking was along the lines of boyhood and young masculinities and how these might be expressed and thought about  in a predominantly male environment. I wondered what level of influence the media had on boys so young and consequently if expectations to perform socially constructed masculine ideals would be greater amid a purely male peerage. 

I began working with the boys, in small groups, providing portraiture classes over a number of weeks. I spent four months in the school in an ad-hoc studio taking the children's portraits. The children came to the studio in pairs with one child sitting for photographs whilst the other child acted as assistant. As I got to know the children I soon abandoned my conceptual framework. The boys were full of energy yes, but they were also kind, thoughtful and sweet, to me and to one another. Their hobbies ranged from collecting Furbies to cooking. When I asked them what was special about their school community, they emphasised kindness, support and inclusion. Their being boys did not seem central to their personal or group identities. Unfettered within their school environment they seemed secure enough to just be.