For all you moms out there (especially the ones that get stressed out over a messy house), this post is for you. With absolutely no little humans in sight, these photos just show evidence that kids were once there. A group consisting of 30 photographers have documented the little details that show the sweet, the subtle and the creative ways kids leave their mark in the world. Started about a year ago, the idea behind Kids Were Here was first introduced by Ketty Photography. The collective photo project has been perfectly described by one of the photographers, Stephanie Beaty, this way:
“These still life images serve as a daily reminder that my days are awash in chaos, whimsy, laughter and laundry (sometimes all at once). They capture toys and spills and puddles and piles. Sentimental, solitary moments of childhood ephemera. A gentle prodding to live in the now and stop looking toward the ‘then.' And though sometimes I pray for clean and quiet and still, I know all too well it will come. And I will yearn for tiny shrieks of laughter in my bedroom. For toys and loveys strewn about. For signs of a daily life well lived. For traces of my babies who once were. For reminders that Kids Were Here–and they were life and light and love.”
“When I first began this project, I thought it would be fun to document the every day messes my children make. As the weeks have passed, this project has really become so much more than that.
It's not really about messes at all, but about the stories they tell. It's about traces of childhood I see throughout my home on a daily basis. It's about the love we share together. It's about living and being…creating, making, learning and trying. This project leaves me a beautiful story each month of the reminders that Kids are here now…and the time, well, its all too fleeting, isn't it? We all need to embrace these moments and just live them too; because they really are the best moments of life.” – photographer Ginger Unzueta
