For approximately the entire month of October 1981, I visited a day care centre near where I lived in London’s Islington, and photographed for an hour or two every weekday. It was a personal assignment I’d decided on, and after obtaining permission from the area educational council, I began my work there.

   Its name was the Canonbury or the Highbury Day Centre, and its director was a tall, handsome woman named Margaret, perhaps Margaret Johnson. Her assistant was a middle-aged woman named Gloria, who may have been Jewish. They were both very helpful, and allowed me to photograph anything I’d a mind to, though the educational council man had cautioned me against doing facial close-ups, because the children were very young, none older than three, and Britain has long been more protective of such children than most other nations.

    In any case, I remember following the kids around in their playground, to the local swimming pool (which they walked as a group to and from), inside their building, where they were taught to read (the oldest ones) a bit, write a bit, and draw. They also took naps as a group, and used the bathroom as a group. One day when they weren’t in the bathroom, I photographed three tiny toilets in a row, and they were very tiny toilets, believe me, but full-service. In other words, they weren’t potty-chairs, but fully-installed tiny toilets.

    I remember one day the children took a nap, and I photographed an Anglo-African woman tucking in a little Anglo-African girl. I also recall a motion-study I did on a stairway, as I stood at the top and a little girl walked up the stairs. In addition, one day, Bob, a playwright on the side, played with the kids on mats, and I did many motion-studies of them, jumping and somersaulting. I also photographed the children playing outside; and did some motion-studies, too, when they were swimming at an indoor pool a few blocks from their centre.

   There were also mums dropping off their kids early in the day, and picking them up at the end of the day. I recall I photographed (several stills) a mother kissing her little boy, as she prepared to leave him there for the day.

    Another time, I photographed an elderly man dropping off newspapers at the day care centre gate. Centre assistant Gloria is in that photo, too, as is a little boy with a plastic golf club.