The paper draws from a longitudinal ethnographic study of a group of diverse children growing up in an urban, low-income, predominantly immigrant community in the northeastern United States, who were given cameras to portray their everyday family, school and community lives. It analyses the images, narratives, activities and intimacies of their care worlds in light of neo-liberal policies of disinvestment in education and family care. The children tell and live stories that recognise and place value on caring as a relational activity and collective responsibility rather than an individual, private matter, thus challenging the logic of neo-liberal market politics. (Contains 6 notes and 4 figures.)