His Glory My Joy, a blog of Author Luana Ehrlich

I was intrigued recently by a new photography book entitled Where Children Sleep by James Mollison.  You can view about twenty of the pages here. There’s an obvious stark contrast between the children born into poverty and those born into an abundance (or over abundance in some cases). In fact, the project was undertaken by Mollison in order to represent needy children around the world.  Yet, he has approached this assignment in an insightful way.  He notes that each child’s sleeping area is “. . . your little space within the house.” 

So, where did you sleep at about 8 years of age?  My sleeping space was in a bedroom I shared with my two younger sisters in a church parsonage in Gideon, Missouri.  They had bunk beds, but I slept in a twin-sized bed with a headboard.  That was important, that headboard, because it held my “things.”  My things mostly consisted of books given to me by my grandmother who lived in Texas and who shared my love of reading.  There was also a radio, a stuffed black and white dog named Spotty, and a musical jewelry box that held only pens for writing.  As I think back on it now, those things still represent me.  I love technology (the radio), dogs (Spotty), writing (the pens) and, of course, good books.  Mollison is right, this was “my little space.”