In the weeks and months before the start of Ramadan, the ninth lunar month when Muslims fast, traditional workshops like the one on Ahmad Maher Street in the medieval quarter of Cairo, turn recycled tin cans into glittering lanterns. In this "Street of the Lanterns," skills in cutting, hammering, perforating and framing colored glass that have been passed down through artisan families (who usually make ordinary items for the household), are set to the task of making the traditional Ramadan lanterns for children. Brass and tin strips cut from cans of cooking oil, fish, kerosene and cheese become the base, top, and frames for colored glass panes formed into numerous shapes. Many of the lanterns conform to a simple, tapered form like a carriage lamp. Others are shaped like multi-pointed stars, crescents called “a big slice of watermelon,” or simply very large and elaborately decorated versions of the smaller ones, but nearly as tall as an adult. Many of the artisans began making the lamps when they were 10 or 15 years old, like the boy in the photograph. Sitting cross-legged on the floor next to the older workers—likely a father, and uncle or grandfather—the youngest workers carry out the simple task of preparing the metal strips with tin snips and simple vice-like tools for drawing the metal straight and smooth. The older, more skilled artisans pierce designs, solder the metal strips, and frame the cut pieces of glass with tin or brass. A base for the candle, a lid, and a ring for hanging complete the lantern. In the second photograph, partly-finished lamps are visible. In the days before Ramadan, the lamps are hung in the shop on long poles for purchase.

While the sharp metal edges can injure young workers, the child labor nevertheless falls within the International Labor Organization guidelines. Acceptable work includes children helping parents around the home, earning pocket money after school and on holidays, and even helping in a family business. Such activity is viewed as beneficial to children's development and socialization. Unacceptable child labor, in contrast, is harmful to physical and mental development, to children's dignity, and "deprives children of their childhood." 1

The photograph is from an exhibition entitled "Thirteen" by German professional photographer Janina Wick. It shows a young female ice skater leaning against the wall in a sports center. The elaborate costume, hairstyle, and makeup shows that she is not a casual skater, but one who trains for formal competition. The artist created this series of images in the tradition of formal portrait photography, to explore the way her subjects—young girls in early adolescence—portray themselves and at the same time reveal unintended vulnerability, awkwardness, and cultural aspects of the feminine adult world they aspire to enter. Wick photographs these young women in their own surroundings, wearing their own clothing. She takes multiple exposures, mostly allowing her subjects to pose themselves, but preferring the three-quarter portrait over full-frontal camera shots.

The photograph is from an exhibition entitled "Thirteen" by German professional photographer Janina Wick. It shows a young girl leaning slightly against a tree, against the background of a graffiti-covered wall, in an urban environment. The artist created this series of images in the tradition of formal portrait photography, to explore the way her subjects—young girls in early adolescence—portray themselves and at the same time reveal unintended vulnerability, awkwardness, and cultural aspects of the feminine adult world they aspire to enter. Wick photographs these young women in their own surroundings, wearing their own clothing. She takes multiple exposures, mostly allowing her subjects to pose themselves, but prefers the three-quarter portrait over full-frontal camera shots.

The text and photographs above describe a traditional Thai birth ritual that celebrates the child's reaching the milestone of one month old, at which time its survival seems more assured than at birth, and it becomes a full-fledged member of the family. Before the infant is one month old, according to tradition, it may have belonged merely to spirits. At this time, a Buddhist monk cuts the infant's hair. "Fire hair" refers to the hair with which the child was born and that grows until the end of its mother's postpartum period of lying in, or lying near the fire as Phya Anuman described the custom. The photograph shows the monk cutting or shaving the hair. The hair is placed on a small raft made of banana leaf and set afloat. The second part of the ceremony involves tying unspun cotton threads around the child's wrists and ankles.

This ceremony of the "khwan," the soul or life spirit, is a prominent object of ritual, and the text describing the custom is from Phya Anuman Rajadhon's (1888-1969) Customs Connected with Birth and the Rearing of Children (1948). The author is a prolific and well regarded literary figure and university professor. Although he did not receive formal academic training in anthropology, his writings have constituted a major source for anthropologists and others on customs from Siam, the traditional name for Thailand. The photographs are from the baby photo album on a website by Thailand's most prominent teenage blogger, Panrit "Gor" Daoruang, who began an online diary at the age of twelve, and chronicled his own life and aspects of Thai culture and contemporary life, and teaching both English and Thai language through stories, quizzes and audio files. The site attracted the attention of the Office of the National Culture Commission for its value in promoting Thailand's image to a worldwide audience.

This photograph of a boy stitching together the parts of a soccer ball was taken in Pakistan in 1998 to document the use of child labor in manufacturing soccer balls and other athletic equipment in South Asia. In the upper right hand corner of the photo, a young girl is also working. Working long hours after or instead of school, child laborers suffer back injuries from crouching over a wooden device that helps tightly hold the pentagonal tiles that make up the surface of the ball. Child laborers also suffer cuts from the waxed cord and needles used to stitch the pieces together. The city of Sialkot in Pakistan, a center of mass production for sports equipment for more than a century, produced three out of four match-grade balls used in the world in 1998—a $200 million dollar export industry for the city, according to a CNN report broadcast in April 1998. Sialkot came to the attention of consumer groups and sports journalists during the late 1990s, for the city’s extensive use of child laborers producing brand-name sports equipment for the largest multi-national corporations globally. Use of child labor is especially ironic since soccer is such a popular game for children worldwide, and a staple of youth recreation programs. In order to avoid boycotts of their products, a campaign of public awareness sought to assure consumers that the balls were not produced by children and that adult laborers were paid a fair-wage. While the soccer balls included labels stating that they were made without the use of child labor, photographs reveal that the labels were actually attached to the balls by child workers. Large companies have escaped responsibility and visibility by using middle-men as contractors. Since the 1990s, the industry has shifted to other locations, including northern India, and continues to employ child laborers. This photograph is part of an extensive International Labour Organization archive that documents child labor around the world.

The billboard shown in the two photographs carries a slogan used widely by non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to promote public interest in the plight of abandoned, orphaned and runaway children living on the streets in cities of Africa, Asia, the Americas and elsewhere. The photograph of Ugandan children standing in front of the billboard wall shows two additional messages, "Street children are children. . . [too?]" and a message in the local language. In addition to raising consciousness in the public about their situation, these organizations provide food, shelter and social services such as medical care, drug abuse counseling, HIV/AIDS prevention education, self-help and vocational training, and educational programs, as well as psychological support. Some of are faith-based organizations representing various religions that run ministries to proselytize among the children or offer religious services together with donated services. As British photographer and geography teacher Bob Jones said about East Africa, "Poverty is a major trigger for the creation of street children. Boys are often forced out of homes in rural areas because a lack of employment opportunities as well as the break up of the family unit through the scourge of HIV/AIDS." Other organizations using the slogan operate in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Russia, Tanzania, and South Africa, to name only a few countries.

These photographs were taken on April 5, 1975 on one of the Pan Am passenger planes that airlifted Vietnamese orphans and Amerasian children of American servicemen and Vietnamese women for Operation Babylift. In the final weeks before the fall of Saigon in April 1975, President Gerald Ford authorized the operation as a gesture to repatriate children who would be American citizens if recognized by their American fathers, ultimately allocating two million dollars to airlift 2,700 orphans to the United States. Children were also airlifted to Australia, Europe, and Canada in separate efforts. Volunteers, soldiers and military nurses accompanied the children on the flights. The first flight, a cargo plane carrying 330 adults and children, crashed shortly after take-off, killing 154 passengers, including 87 of the children. President Ford himself met the first flight that landed safely and carried an infant onto U.S. soil. Accommodations also included cargo planes with rows of cradle boxes strapped to the floors, children arrayed on benches meant to transport goods or soldiers, and harried adults who made do with too little food and supplies for the trip. Some of the participants went on to adopt children from the group. Operation Babylift children, some of whom were disabled, and many of whom suffered from malnutrition, were adopted by American families. When they grew to adulthood, many of the orphans visited Vietnam and sought information about their birth parents, experienced reunions, and learned more about the land and culture of their birth. Today there are support groups both online and in person for the parents and children who shared this experience. These organizations still support individuals seeking knowledge and contact with their birth parents and siblings. The cross-cultural experience of these children both as orphans and as reminders of a foreign war can be compared with the wartime experiences of children in other places. In the case of the Amerasian children, there is significant longitudinal research material from the time of their childhood to their current adulthood, including accounts of their journey’s home, and their efforts to connect with others who share this heritage.

"Italian Mother and Baby" appeared in Jacob Riis's How the Other Half Lives: Studies among the Tenements of New York (1890). This image captures the misery of urban poverty as well as the tenacity of life. It is infused with unmistakable sentimentalism and symbolism. This forlorn mother with her swaddled baby is evocative of Mary and of many paintings of "Madonna and Child." The hat hanging on the wall above her head is also suggestive of the halo that long represented the sacred in ancient art and religious iconography.

Many of Riis's photographs provide insight into the struggles of everyday life for immigrant children. What does this photo reveal about infancy among Italian immigrants? In what ways does the material culture of infancy mingle Old World practices and modern ones? While useful for recording the past, documentary photographs need to be seen through a critical lens. For example, historians have observed that children in Riis's photographs are portrayed as innocents, victims, or criminals. How is the baby in this picture represented?

How did Riis stimulate sympathetic feelings and summon sacred associations in this photo's gritty realism? In order to create this rendition of the Virgin Mary and Child Riis developed the "flash" technique that illuminated the basement of this New York City tenement. The halo-like hat was Riis's own and did not belong to the father who barely supported this family as a rag picker. Why might Riis have staged the scene? As a social reformer, Riis used religious imagery in order to capture the attention of the middle-class and inspire them to act on their beliefs to help the poor.

This image found on a wall around the University of Vienna and the Austrian Parliament, in 2008, is a graffiti stencil of Pippi Longstocking, the eponymous fictional character created by the Swedish children's book author, Astrid Lindgren, in 1945. Since then, Pippi Långstrump (in Swedish) has been translated into 90 languages and made into movies and TV series. The image here is based on the portrayal of Pippi by Inger Nilsson, the 9-year-old actress who starred in a 1968 Swedish TV series. Dubbed versions were shown on German TV in 1971 and in the U.S. by 1973 where they became enormously popular.

Though she is known by other names around the world ("Harisnyás Pippi" in Hungarian), Pippi is an iconic figure whose gravity defying red braids, oversized shoes, mismatched socks, home-made clothing, and freckled face represent her playful and plucky world view.

Pippi is an independent, unconventional, anti-authoritarian 9-year-old rebel who lives alone in a villa she shares with her monkey and horse. Although she is a perpetual outsider, Pippi is an advocate for the rights of children, generous with her wealth (though unmaterialistic), and a critic of unquestioned adult authority. She is enormously strong (lifting a horse and flinging policemen) and has a great sense of humor. The self-educated Pippi challenges the status quo by contesting language, logic, and principles as expressed here with her creative answer to the math problem: "2 x 3 = 4."

Illegally stenciled onto a wall in a public space, this graffitied image of Pippi expresses the subversive principles and practices of young adults who have made this "anti-Shirley Temple" into a poster child of the counter culture. As the quintessential gender bender, Pippi is especially beloved by girls and women. But not all: some see her as a poor role model for children.

Pippi's world-wide reach provides unique opportunities for in-depth and cross cultural analyses of Pippi's meanings to children and youth. The enormous variety of sources available (e.g., books, movies, dolls as well as children's drawings and handmade costumes, etc.) make it possible to utilize textual, visual, and material culture methods of research.