Don’t pick on Brooklyn Beckham’s new book. You’re just jealous

VICTORIA and David Beckham’s son released a photography book that isn’t great. But those hating on him are missing a vital piece of information, writes Kerry Parnell.

Brooklyn Beckham says he became hooked on photography after his dad, David, gave him a camera. He’s now released a book of his photos. Not everyone appreciates it. (Pic: Daniel Leal-Olivas/AFP)

SO what if Brooklyn Beckham’s photos are rubbish? At least the teenager is having a go.

This week, the eldest son of David and Victoria Beckham released his photography book What I See — and was pilloried for his efforts.

The tome, made up of images of himself, his family and his travels, is to be fair, not the finest example of the craft, but that’s irrelevant.

What really matters is that the 18-year-old has a passion that he hopes to make into his career, and has the support of his parents in doing so.

Never mind his mum and dad are famous. Never mind they have a gazillion dollars. Never mind a lot of his snaps are blurry, in shadow, or just a bit pants.

Well done him for having the (golden) balls to go after something he loves. The snipers are just jealous.

British art editor Alice Jones ridiculed the book on Twitter this week, saying, “Huge fan of Brooklyn Beckham’s terrible photographs and even worse captions,” thus opening the gates to a torrent of abuse from people whining it isn’t fair he has a book when they don’t.

Huge fan of Brooklyn Beckham's terrible photographs and even worse captions pic.twitter.com/012PeCcED4

— Alice Jones (@alicevjones) June 23, 2017

The Sun newspaper royal photographer Arthur Edwards weighed in, saying: “None of these pictures is sharp and many are badly lit. It’s a bit early to start releasing books when you have not mastered the basic skills.”

But they’ve missed the point — because how many aspiring photographers have 10 million followers on Instagram? It’s a no-brainer.

Brooklyn, who launched his book in London on Tuesday, with guests including his parents, Liv Tyler and Noel Gallagher’s daughter Anais, revealed he was given his first camera by his dad when he was finding school “frustrating” and soon became hooked.

This is the vital piece of information — he was a teenage boy struggling at school, and his parents intuitively helped him find a passion. Full marks to them for being such a loving, close unit, because the other option that presents itself so often to lost teenage boys is drink, drugs and depression.

Brooklyn had initially followed his father into football and was signed by Arsenal’s youth team, but quit when he realised his heart wasn’t in it. Instead he took up photography and started posting his pictures on Instagram, quickly amassing an enormous following.

So I’ll forgive him if his photo of an elephant in Kenya is in shadow (“so hard to photograph,” he captioned it), or his image of a dinner event is blurred (“it’s out of focus but you can tell there’s a lot going on”). He’ll find the skill he needs when he enrols in his photography degree later this year.

Haters can hate that Brooklyn has had a designer-clad leg several rungs up the ladder, but seeing him in his arty outfit and hat, camera slung over his shoulder, is so endearing, it makes me feel all motherly towards him.

Parenting expert Dr Justin Coulson says if we want our children to be confident and have good self-esteem, we should “give them opportunities to develop competence at something”.

Which is just what the Beckhams have done. So don’t wish Brooklyn into the dark room of life just because you’re jealous — focus on snapping up opportunities yourself instead.