The gallery is open to the public and admission is free. Opening receptions for new exhibits in the gallery are held on the first night of an exhibit, usually from 5 - 7 p.m. They came escaping death and hoping for a better future for their children. The subjects are teenagers for whom gang violence and exile have become routine. But these youths who are often seen one-dimensionally as perpetrators of violence are also its victims.
Gangs kill, but they also protect.
In the world teen gang members inhabit, that is the emotional price paid for survival each day. Donna DeCesare is an award-winning freelance photographer and writer living in New York City.