Description:A mother’s pleasure in her child’s body was a standard feature of photographic portraiture in the late 19th century and can be found in the work of Birmingham born Emma Barton (1872-1938). She preferred to create slightly blurred, moody and other worldly images. Barton’s photographs of children are serene, sunlit, idealised, nostalgic, innocent, fragile and sentimental. We often view things differently today and modern viewers may feel more conscious of the child’s nakedness.