Images in childhood studies. How do they appear? What are they for? How to use them? A proposal to promote iconographic research on childhood

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to promote the use and analysis of images in the so-called interdisciplinary studies on childhood. The central problem of the text is that, despite the fact that the iconography was relevant to deepen the knowledge of childhood as a historical and cultural construct, over time this was forgotten. This does not mean that some investigations do not resort to images —from advertising, painting, cinema, the press, etc.— as sources for thinking about childhood, or that books and articles are published sporadically that try to make and categorize childhood from a screen of images. But, even so, this continues to be an exception that repeats methodological and conceptual errors such as assuming the image in the singular or understanding it as transparent. Given this, we propose three sections. In the first, a historical tour that explores the link and the possibilities between images and childhood studies. Secondly, the reasons that have proscribed and hindered the use and problematization of photographic, pictorial, cinematographic images, etc., in this same field. Finally, we present some horizons and care necessary to think through images the category of childhood.