Posted: October 27th, 2026

Guild volunteer Bob Cooper’s photographs he took when a child appear in a new book, ‘Whippersnappers: How Children Became Photographers’ by Professor Annebella Pollen of the University of Brighton.

Whippersnappers traces the development of child photography from the 1880s, when affordable cameras became available, to the modern digital camera age. The book is enriched with contemporary cartoons, advertisements and pages from comics, and is available in bookstores and online direct from the publishers, Four Corners Books.

An exhibition accompanying the book – Snap Happy! How Children Became Photographers – is at The Photographers’ Gallery (16-18 Ramillies Street, London W1F 7LW; nearest Tube: Oxford Circus) and runs until February 21st 2027.

The photograph shows young teenager Bob attempting a self-portrait with his Agifold camera.