On Seeing, A Journal. #372

“Growing Up” – Emma Plansky

June 12, 2020

 

4 years and 22 years

 

I have studied over 200 children from childhood into their 20’s some starting when they were newborns, and others when they were about four (as with Emma) to seven, making annual studio portraits and asking them, once they learned to read and write, to write answers to a series of questions, a kind of diary about their lives, their feelings, their hopes, their regrets.
Emma Plansky is a truly unique and wonderfully one-of-a-kind kid.
I always looked forward to the annual visits she and her mother made to our studio.
4 years

 

6 years

 

7 years

 

8 years

 

9 years

 

10 years

 

11 years

 

12 years

 

13 years

 

15 years

 

16 years

 

17 years

 

18 years

 

22 years

 

Thank-you Emma, (and mom).

Please do return in a few years.

I am interested in everything about human development, fascinated by maturation, growth, emotional, educational and physical development. This exploration has been a major 30 year odyssey, an adventure that has yielded riches beyond my initial imagining.

I am certain that every reader will make unique discoveries and original observations that growing up creates. I’d love to hear what you “see.”

Permission was signed by the parents of each and every child every year, and by the participants themselves once they turned 18. In addition, we have now sent copies of all of their writings and edited photographs to the participants for whom I have finished all my editing and have received full permission from that group to publish and post.

A few kids asked that we remove a few of their written items.

So far, none of these “edits” have significantly altered their “stories.”
A few kids asked that we use pseudonyms to which we have complied.

Recently, I spent time with Steven Spierer, on his radio show, “Talk One” and discussed my Growing Up project at length. You can listen to the full interview here.