Before They Know

By Prapi Patel

There is a window in every life that closes so quietly that no one notices it shut. These captures exist inside that window – The Childhood. 

A child held close, not yet aware of the weight that holding someone carries. Ice cream, clutched like it is the only thing that matters in the world. A tiny human melting into a shoulder, surrendering completely to the safety of being carried, trusting without leaver, having learned the word of ‘trust.’

This series is less about childhood and more about the quality of children living in the present. They are nostalgic for something they have not lost yet. They simply are, fully and unapologetically themselves. 

Capturing this was like standing at the other side of the window and looking back in. The tenderness here belongs not only to the children, but to the adults holding them, feeding them, shielding them from a sun they have not yet learned can burn.