Guest Photographer: Levi, Age 6

When I was a kid, my parents gave us coupons for holidays. One year, my dad put them in our stockings early.

“VOID if opened!” I read.

“Dad? What does void mean?”

“It means you looked in your stocking.”

They were full of obscure gifts like people watching at the airport. Having grown up with it, my kids now get coupons for everything, too, and double time. Nana and PopPop give them trips to feed the ducks and to cook with Nana.

My six year old, Levi, made the request to redeem his “Take Pictures with Mama” coupon that’s been sitting on the side of the fridge for 8 months. Ice cream for breakfast was long gone.

I asked where he wanted to go, and thinking he might say something like a park, a train station, or a hike, he surprised me when he said, “Can we go where that high heeled shoe is that is made out of high heeled shoes?”

“Sure, Buddy.”

When he was born, the doctor told us he was quirky. He really is. He’s consistently baffled doctors with unsolvable issues that sometimes, literally disappear. He’s never shown interest in any particular thing. Not dinosaurs or super heros or hula hoops. “Levi, do you have any favorite things?” we ask periodically.

“Black,” he says. Little to pinpoint but the color black.

Last year, in the middle of some testing for his older brother, we began to realize that perhaps Levi wasn’t seeing things as a typical five or six year old. Having brothers with definable special needs, we assumed he was our TDC- our typically developing child. Didn’t take long to find out we were wrong. I guess we don’t have one.

While others in class were learning their letter sounds, Levi discovered he did like things. Like physics, atoms, nuclei, ecological preservation, and compassion for those without homes. He’d been struggling and told me life was brown like a bowling ball. That sat heavy in my heart like a bowling ball. But as were going through this season he spoke these poetic words, almost as if he got to wake his brain up to these incredible things. “Mama, it’s all white, like water. And I like it.”

Off we went to shoe statue.

In the midst of our outing, he confesses, “Mom, I only chose this coupon to get it over with. But…”

I half expected Levi to just be like any kid. Give them a camera and click, cick, click, click, click, click. The sound is half the fun.

Or to see a shoe statue and take a picture of the shoe statue. See a car and take a picture of a car. See a door and take a picture of a door.

He didn’t do either of those things.

Levi was methodical and purposeful with every single click. Of the photos he took, only a couple are specifically of a particular object, as if it could be removed and labeled for a preschool vocabulary book.

This experience for me was so powerful, seeing the lens through which my six year old sees the world. He naturally did things that were taught to me in college or through professional photography classes- things I have to remind those I mentor or teach.

Never once did I say, “Try looking from a different angle- maybe above or below. Walk all the way around the subject.” I didn’t need to. He was up under that shoe, looking above him at the lights, and hardly ever just standing at eye level pointing the camera at what he saw.

He sees patterns, light and shadow, texture, and perspective. He sees and creates leading lines.

I’d stop him and ask, “What made you just take that picture? What do you see?” His answers were incredible to me.

“I want it to look like I’m at a dump and these shoes were just piled up there.”

Shifting juuuust right, “See those cones?” Yeah, kiddo, and only when you shift like that do they make any visual difference at all.

The compassion that fills him up led him to take photographs of all the dying flowers. Dried up, brown hydrangeas. Wilted impatients in need of a good soaking. He told me they are sad, but also beautiful.

He wanted to show all these different ways to look at things. An older gentleman expressed great concern to him as he was walking towards a slide at a playground. “You are going to spoil that camera!” Yes, most six year olds probably would, but he wanted to share just what it looks like to go down a slide. What a joyful, visual perspective to share!

For years I’ve wanted to show the perspective of a child’s smiling face while he’s being spun around by his hands, but that’s a challenge. And here, he’s showing play through photography without any hesitation. Thankfully, that camera wasn’t spoiled in his attempts.

He finished his sentence, “Mom, I only chose this coupon to get it over with. But… I really like this.”

Aside: I did this with my five year old about a week later, because as you can imagine, the younger wished to also use his coupon. And his was much like him in this phase of life. Fast, color-driven, low composition, focused on mom, and much clicking. :)