Family on the Steps of Their Barracks
An examination of another pair of photographs reveals that one of the primary influential factors on children’s reactions is their context, or whether other children and/or adults accompany them. The presence of other children and adults (especially parents) is important because these people provide a reason for the children to be happy and therefore smile in photographs. Since children are more candid in their reactions, their surroundings matter a lot in how they react to photographers. A photograph from the Minidoka camp shows a young, little girl with her parents sitting on the steps in front of their barracks (“Family on the Steps of Their Barracks”). Both of the girl’s parents are smiling and the girl, who is in between them, is smiling as well. In fact, the girl appears to be laughing because of her open-mouth expression. If the girl were alone on the steps, would she have a similar happy expression? Likely not. The girl is smiling because she is comfortable with her parents who create a context where she is able to be happy. Her smile is not spurious as the smiles of adults sometimes are. Instead, the fact that her parents are beside her and are happy themselves gives her a sense of comfort and elicits real joy. Also of note is the fact that this photograph was taken inside an internment camp. The setting is not at all familiar to the girl, and internment camps are by their nature demoralizing. One would not expect a girl to be this happy in internment environment, but the fact that she is happy even within internment is a testament to how much parents or other children can change the mood of children. In this particular photograph, it is the presence of the girl's parents that inspires her smile.