The Face in Visual Representations of Children

Abstract

In this article, I take on the problem of the face in images and visual research on children. This is a problem that is engendered through the visual representations of children and the act of deploying the visualizing techniques associated with visual methods (pictures, video, etc.). It nevertheless is a problem, I argue, that has been couched singularly within a question of ethics in child studies, criminology, and sociology, among other disciplines. Here, I utilize the work of Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari to challenge the unquestioned ethical commitment to the pixilation of children’s faces in publications. To trouble and reconceptualize the problem of visual representations of children, I assert that this problem is intimately connected to the cultural politics of childhood. For illustrative purposes, I analyze how children are represented in Today’s Child advertisements and Roman Vishniac’s Children of a Vanished World. This article concludes with a broader discussion of the (child’s) face, digital images, and (micro)politics.

Faceless, voiceless child – Ethics of visual anonymity in research with children and young people

“…Blurring or pixelation is a technique that is used for hiding features in images. This practice is not purely technical – and certainly not innocent – as it reflects the culture and politics around individuals, groups, communities and environments (Spencer, 2020). In our (Western) cultural reading, the suppression of a face is commonly done to protect the identity of ‘unpopular’ people such as police, criminals or informers, or hide details of dubious situations and events.…”

“…Dale Spencer (2020) suggests that the issue of visual anonymity needs to be revisited in child studies as it is featured in a simplistic way and is detached from the cultural politics of childhood. For instance, the discussion around research ethics, and particularly that of anonymisation, has not kept pace with the increasingly visual worlds of children and young people.…”

“…Children’s immersion into the world of visual media causes concern among adults, but it can also level hierarchies, amplify voices and strengthen the feeling of agency among children. These issues connect the question of ‘face’ and its concealment unavoidably to qualitative research and research ethics (Spencer, 2020: 3).…”

“…Anonymity is normalised through research ethics guidelines recommending disguising participants’ personal identities as a default position (Saunders et al, 2015). Concealing children’s identities through pseudonyms and blurred images is expected to assure children’s disconnection to the research at present, and later when they may not want to be associated with the views they have expressed or groups they have represented as children (Spencer, 2020: 2). Anonymity can also be empowering as it allows children to speak freely without concerns of negative personal consequences (Gordon, 2019).…”

“…Like all the photos chosen for the exhibition, the inclusion of the photo was negotiated with and approved by other participants, as they felt it represented one of the main messages they wished to deliver: ‘I’m just ordinary, like a Finnish boy’, as it was put by 15 year-old Hamasa (see Korkiamäki & Gilligan, 2020). This explicitly positioned the exhibition as what (Spencer, 2020): 2) calls ‘visual images of children as landscapes that have broader (bio)political implications’.…”