“Saving a picture forever”: Documenting and curating “truthful” images at school

Abstract

With a focus on Parker, a Black second-grader, this paper explores how photographs taken by children reveal aspects of identity that adults do not always capture or deem important in school spaces. In fact, while Parker was often imaged and positioned in deficit ways, children's photographs expanded static narratives told about Parker. While troubling documentation, the findings highlight the ways children's capacities, strengths, and contributions are overlooked by images reproducing neoliberal logics.