One of our aims is to extend the richness and depth to our knowledge and understanding of street children's lives and one of the most experimental parts of our research has been our exploits with film. In this part of the research we have given over the creation of visual records of the children's working lives to our participating children, by giving them single-use analogue film cameras containing 27 exposures and a fixed focus lens. Using what is now rudimentary photographic technology has, for us, the advantages of being relatively inexpensive, robust, easy to use and portable. The aim is to produce visual records of these children's working lives as an integral part of the research process, to produce primary visual data and to provide a visual means of encouraging street children to reflect upon their working lives.

This approach has not been without its problems but on balance, we feel that it has been vindicated. In particular, the children have cooperated with our somewhat unusual request to make a photographic record of a day in their working lives with enthusiasm, thoughtfulness and dashes of real creativity. While our experiments with photography continue, we have already amassed a highly distinctive, always interesting and often arresting selection of photographic images made with and for Accra’s growing population of street children. For a fuller discussion, see Mizen and Ofosu-Kusi, but below are some examples of the children's photographs.

John

John (psuedonym), 14, used his camera to create a series of images of himself working. Taken by a friend, in this image John is shown at the beginning of the day assisting a street vendor preparing to set up the stall where she prepares and sells food. In return, John receives something to eat.

Most of John's photographs show him working, selling black plastic carrier bags and carrying loads to and from the market. In a striking series of 8 photographs, he shows us the process of being commissioned to carry a load (boxes of smoked fish) through to delivery at a small restaurant and payment. But like many of the children John's day is also frequently punctuated by periods of inactivity. In this photograph, John is shown sheltering in the shade of a passenger vehicle, black plastic carrier bags in hand, waiting for another customer.

Pam

Pam also manages to eat and earn some money by washing up for this road-side food vendor. The work is irregular and not well paid, but the woman feeds her and she gets to rest during lulls in business. During particularly difficult moments, this woman also provides Pam with much-needed cash, sometimes as a loan and other times as a gift. At night Pam sleeps with other street girls in a road-side wooden shack. The security guard for near-by businesses also keeps an eye on them, but sometimes he expects to be rewarded for his protection.

Mustapha

Mustapha's photographs were rich and varied. At 14 years old, he had been in Accra for three years after travelling with an older boy. He had not lost complete contact with his mother and had earned enough to survive by working as a porter, and by selling iced water and plastic carrier bags. Commenting on this image of three boys sharing a bowl of food, Mustapha went on to elaborate on how the boys share one another's food when they have no money; an example of the many sources of cooperation street children have developed to manage some of the most difficult moments of life on the street.