Luttrell Advocates for Children's Rights at Annual Visible Rights Conference

Associate Professor Wendy Luttrell recently spoke in Cambridge at the second Visible Rights Conference: Photography by and For Children, which she also coorganized.

The conference, sponsored by The Cultural Agents Initiative, the Provost Office at Harvard University, the David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies, and the Harvard University Committee on Human Rights Study, attracted 96 artists, educators, and researchers, who identified and exchanged best photography practices to promote children agencies and civic participation.

“I believe we are missing a key opportunity to see beyond ourselves, as educators, researchers, and professional photographers, to inquire more deeply into learning how children understand themselves as subjects and as protagonists in their own right—not simply for who they are becoming,” said Luttrell, who researches how children use photography to interpret their world and express their concerns.

The first Visible Rights Conference held in Sao Paulo last year demonstrated the need for more information regarding children and their cameras. “Many of us felt that we had just begun to scratch the surface of really powerful and contentious issues,” Luttrell said. “We learned that a deeper, more reflective discussion was more necessary than any of us might have imagined.”

The recent Visible Rights conference, held on December 14 and 15, focused on identifying projects with various objectives, resources, mentoring approaches, and links to the children and human rights agenda. Among topics discussed included youth violence, homelessness, environmental protection, and media literacy. Participants also examined how these photographic projects could lead to learning about economic development, educational benefits, increased self esteem, and youth participation in policy discussions. The recent conference will help with the development of a Visible Rights publication and materials for a new Visible Rights website.