Photo Essay: When a Kid's Bedroom Isn't a Room

[polly7]

By James Mollison | Fri Nov. 23, 2012 3:08 AM PST

A few years ago, James Mollison began taking photos of children around the world and their rooms. "I soon realized that my own experience of having a 'bedroom' simply doesn't apply to so many kids," he recalls in his book Where Children Sleep, which collects his images from 18 countries. Striking and unsentimental, Mollison's work shows that wherever a child lies down at night is not so much a retreat from as a reflection of the world outside.

http://www.motherjones.com/media/2012/11/kids-bedrooms-james-mollison

[riverbendviewgal]

1. what different worlds

My boys grew up lucky. We were not rich but we all had food, clothes, good public schools and they had their own rooms. They did not work until in their teens.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Joey lives in Kentucky.

[CherokeeDem]

3. And that means what????

I doubt Joey in Kentucky is the only child with a "GI Joe" styled room. This one is certainly over the top with all the guns...but I imagine there are, unfortunately, children with smiliar rooms across the US.

I know lots of kids here in Kentucky who do not have rooms like this.

[NYC_SKP]

7. I don't have a problem with it.

I thought it was kinda cute how completely thematic it was.

I also have a lot of dear friends in the great state of Kentucky!

BTW, there's also a really sad one of a girl in Kentucky where mom and dad work at McDonalds and Walmart.

I wasn't trying to smear Kentucky and I'm sorry if it looked that way.

[CherokeeDem]

12. I apologize...

There has been so much smearing of Kentucky lately and I might have been a bit testy this am. I know you from reading your posts to be very fair...so my bad.

I was very taken with the little girl...many of my relatives still live in Eastern Kentucky, and while most are more fortunate...my heart went out to her and her family...parents that are trying to do what they can for their child, yet if they get assistance from the state in any way, they are considered moochers. What are we doing to ourselves.

Again...sorry...

[NYC_SKP]

13. No problem, friend!

And I'm actually involved, remotely, with several people working in an organization that's trying to help people in Kentucky fight the opposition to proper and efficient housing.

I love them, and love you all!

[Auntie Bush]

4. I bet an awful lot of kids in the mid West have rooms like that.

The ones that hate Obama and government! But love their guns and religion.

[hootinholler]

6. Joey appears to be from a hunting family

It would seem he enjoys the hunt. I know good kids who have similar rooms in Md and in Pa.

What's your point Skip?

[NYC_SKP]

8. First, it makes for an interesting contrast to the rest of the pictures, some are very poor.

This kid has it all, it's a complete theme!

I happen to be a gun owner and was raised to hunt.

If we had a pot to piss in, I might have had a room like that.

I remember my first BB gun, it resembled an M-1, gift from a family friend.

And I still have my Model 90 1890 .22 WRF octagon barrel rifle, my grandfather's that my grandmother gave to me.

I didn't mean to make a statement other than one of contrast.

If anything, I'm more on that family's side of the street than 90% of DU.

[hootinholler]

9. I suppose an girl's unicorn themed room would have served as well.

Thanks for clarifying for me, some might consider that gun porn

I never had a BB gun.

I might have had a room like that as well, er, probably would have been football themed. I shared a room with my sister until I was 10. My grandfather bought each of his grandsons a marlin 30-30. I was a subsistence hunter at 12, carried a 410/.22Mag O/U. Used to bark squirrels or run beagles (which we sold trained pups) for rabbits and the occasional pheasant.

We spent an entire summer without electricity back in the woods (caretakers on wooded 155 acre riverfront property) cooking on wood coals and box ovens. We did have running water from a small dam around a limestone spring up hill about 50' vertical gave us good water pressure.

Good Times LOL

[NYC_SKP]

10. Not too dissimilar...

Your place sounds more picturesque-

We were on ag land at the mercy of the owner who let us stay in the house grandpa built after he passed, I slept with grandma, same bed, and sister and mom had twin beds in the second bedroom.

The house was plumbed with unpotable river water, a bit brown, and we had drinking water into one kitchen tap fed by an elevated tank.

And old redwood water wagon with spoked wheels had to be pulled over to the nearest well a couple miles away to fill up and bring back.

We made boats and carts every winter, nothing but fun out there!

I never really came to love hunting, however. I remember being really sad after shooting a blackbird or sparrow in our orchard and picking up it's body, still warm.

In any event, I get into deep shit around here for my 2A and RKBA support, despite how unpopular it is, and also step up to defend rural folks, as well, who are far to often marginalized.

[hootinholler]

11. Well

If a 12x65 mobile home set up in a hole carved out of the hillside in the woods is picturesque, I'll leave you to your fantasy.

We did have the Monongahela to play in. I watched the water color go from sulfur orange to a greenish the to almost clear after the clean water act was passed. The riverfront part of the property had been a dump site for dredge tailings which was sprouting growth. We kept some roads mowed and there was a cabin with a yard we kept mowed. The owners used to come in by boat for picnics and water skiing.

[lostcat]

5. these are some great pictures though

me thinks

[RainDog]

14. k&r n/t