I had a lot of equipment, which filled up much of the room. Each shoot took up to four hours, and each interview, which was videotaped, took up about two of those hours. Together and separately, the words and images tell incredible stories of where the teens are, have been and sometimes where they are going. Often the stories are shocking or tragic, but ultimately they are about strength, hope and renewal. We assume that a photograph tells us some kind of truth or fact, but there are really very few facts in photography.
Every photo taken is constructed.
The presence of the photographer always becomes a part of that image, thus adding a whole other level of meaning to the image. As a photographer, I make decisions such as lighting, framing and perspective that may very well tell more about how I see something than how it really is. And to make things even more strange and fascinating, I choose to interview my subjects and give them a voice by selecting a piece or pieces of their story and make that as important as their photographic image. The stories that the teenagers told me were often at odds with what the image I was constructing said. And the stories may very well had been at odds with what really happened in their lives.