Last updated at 19:28 05 February 2008

For many adults, it's time to cringe and run for the hills when the

family photo album comes out.

But Barack Obama showed off these intimate childhood snapshots to the

world as he fought for the hearts of American voters on

"Super Tuesday."

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The photos were designed to underline the 46-year-old White House

frontrunner's rise from a humble background as the mixed race son of a

single mother to the brink of the Democratic Party's presidential

nomination.

They were also part of the youngest candidate's strategy to push his

broad appeal as the fresh face with the best chance to make history by

winning the November 4 election to become the first black U.S

president.

The Obama campaign released the family album as 24 states went to the

polls with the Illinois senator running neck-and-neck with former first

lady Hillary Clinton, 60.

The pictures show him at various stages of his life, from him splashing

about in the ocean as a little boy in the Sixties, to swinging a

baseball bat and riding around on a tricycle.

A poignant shot shows him laughing in the arms of his mother, Ann.

There are photos of his Kenyan father, after whom he was named, his

Indonesian stepfather and his white grandparents.

Like most 70s fashion survivors, he also has that photo of the wide

collar shirt. His hair edges towards an afro in the same snap.

From being virtually unknown a couple of years ago, Mr Obama's story

has captured the imagination of voters.

Being the son of a black father from Kenya and a white mother from

America's Midwest, Mr Obama claims to embody the desire for change

after eight years of the Bush administration.

His father, who grew up herding goats in a village called Alego in

Kenya's Nyanza province, won a scholarship to Hawaii, where he met and

later married Ann Dunham, who hailed from Kansas.

Their son was born in Honolulu on August 4, 1961.

The marriage didn't last and Barack Sr. later returned to Kenya, where

he worked as a government economist before his death in a car accident

when his son was 21.

When Mr Obama was six, his mother married Lolo Soetoro, an Indonesian

foreign student and the family moved to Jakarta. After four years, he

went to Hawaii to live with his grandparents and attend university. His

mother died of cancer 12 years ago at the age of 53.