The new U.S.A.: portraits of the next generation, by Robin Bowman

February 3, 2008

© Robin Bowman

During a long period of 5 years, photojournalist Robin Bowman - a 2005 W. Eugene Smith Memorial Fellow- traveled across The United States of America compiling an extraordinary collection of portraits of adolescents that are complemented with the teenager's own voices and statements.Not only the portraits -all in black and white- are exquisite but what makes this work special is that it provides a pictorial census of the circumstances describing the generation that will define the future of the USA.

The result of this work is a book entitled "It's Complicated: The American Teenager", containing a very large amount -263- of portraits and statements. The total photographic project resulted in 419 portraits, so only a selection of those appear in the book.

At her website you can see a slide show of few of the images: it displays a bit slowly [good if you have the time to enjoy each of them]. A better way to see the images (more images although smaller) is at the website for the Moving Walls program organized by the Open Society Institute. If you look at the photo gallery you will see the images with the adolescent's statements. The statements are a fundamental component to fully appreciate the project.

Also, I like to point to a beautiful article about Bowman's work here.[thanks to Bill Hunt from Hasted Hunt gallery for the tip] [from the picture above] - Lawrence, Kansas, July 2, 2004. Patrick Roberts, age 19.

When my parents got divorced I was about 10 years old and the reason they got divorced was because my mom was, or decided, or found out, she was a lesbian. I'd say that's one of the most influential sort of moments that affected me; it just changed the way that I looked at things, and I think that it caused me to sort of try to grow up faster or to look at things from a perspective that a lot of my peers and classmates weren't looking at that point [...] I think my biggest fear is sex. It scares me.

Miguel Garcia-Guzman

Posted in Books, Photographers, Photography