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"Now I am One" [(c) Tim Smith]

Previous exhibitions at the National Media Museum have featured many of the world's most famous photographers. Now the Museum has decided to stage an exhibition featuring photos most of us are familiar with at some stage of our lives. "Everyone has baby photos at home and for a lot of people they can be their most treasured possessions, but I don't think there's been a lot of analysis of baby photography," says Grace Haydon, Content Developer at the Museum.

Father and baby, c1960 (Tony Walker/Belle Vue) *

However, all that is about to change when the Museum stages not one but TWO baby-centred exhibitions at the same time. Most of the "analysis" may well take place in Gallery One where the work of well-known photographers - from pioneers like Julia Margaret Cameron to many of today's big names - will be on show as well as celebrity parents with their babies. Grace explains: "There has been a changing ideal of how a baby should look according to society's values at the time so it's exploring things like that - different ways advertisers as well as professional and amateur photographers have looked at baby photography."

Tim taken by his mum or his dad [(c) Tim Smith]

Meanwhile Ian Beesley, resident photographer for the Born in Bradford project which aims to follow 10,000 babies born in Bradford from birth to adulthood, has contributed some of his photos showing fathers with their new sons and daughters as well as those of babies born on January 1st, 2009.

Polyphotos like this were all the rage in the '50s

Grace believes the photos sent in suggest the way we look at our babies doesn't stand still: "The photos from the last ten years or so seem to contain a lot with props...There are babies dressed up as cowboys and there is one we received of a baby with a feather boa and pearls. We have some 1970s ones which are more soft-focused, cheesy sheepskin rugs sort of things. The very old ones from the 19th and 20th centuries are more formal - I think some babies were actually strapped onto the chairs to keep them upright for the photos."

Ian Beesley [(c) Ian Beesley]

Grace has been very surprised to find just how many photograhic studios there once were in Manningham alone: "In the days when Belle Vue was popular people would go to a photography studio for a big occasion...A wedding party would go to the photographic studio in their wedding outfits."  But not all of Bradford's photographic studios have gone. She says: "I think when amateur photography became much more popular and much more accessible a lot of photographic studios did disappear, but now I think people do appreciate going to a studio because it's something special in the days when everyone just takes digital photos and they are just uploaded onto Facebook...and a lot of people don't even print out their photos anymore. Taking your baby along to the photographic studio is a bit more of an event and it's something special to keep."