Abstract
In a society saturated with images, where the child's gaze is constantly shaped by pre-packaged and filtered visual stimuli, this study advocates a return to the essential: “seeing deeply through the eyes of the child.” Photography, understood as both an artistic expression and a sensitive experience, is explored here as a pedagogical tool capable of fostering authorship, contemplation, and visual attentiveness in childhood. Adopting a qualitative, exploratory, and descriptive approach grounded in authors such as Sontag (2007), Hermann (2010), Ferry (1994), and Almeida (2015), this work reflects on the aesthetic education of children in the face of today's image-saturated world. As a practical outcome, the study presents the creation of photographic totems installed at historical landmarks in the city of Erechim, in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. These totems invite poetic interactions with the urban space, encouraging children and passersby to engage their gaze, attention, and sensitivity. The findings suggest that the totems function as mediators between childhood, art, and memory, fostering experiences of aesthetic authorship in the everyday life of the city.