Adorable Vintage Photos Captured the "World of Children" in the 1940s and 1950

Esther Bubley (1921–1998) was an American photographer who specialized in expressive photos of ordinary people in everyday lives. Her career in documentary photography and photojournalism was launched in 1942 when Roy Stryker hired her to work in his dark room at the Office of War Information (OWI), where his famed Farm Security Administration (FSA) photographic project had recently been transferred. In 1944, Bubley followed Stryker to Standard Oil (New Jersey)(SONJ) where he was charged with compiling a photographic library. Bubley was a freelancer for Standard Oil for the rest of the 1940s and 1950s.

These pictures were made for a various reasons: magazine assignments, documentary projects, advertisements, and family albums. “I have known some of these children over long periods of time, others for only a few minutes,” she said.

“Regardless of how long I have known them, my way of photographing children (and other people) usually follows a certain pattern. All children like to have their pictures taken. Even tiny babies are fascinated with shiny lenses and flashing lights. Older children, while they enjoy posing, have unfortunately often been conditioned to stand still before a camera and smile into the lens. Thus, posing children is not a problem; getting them not to pose is.”