Identity Project
For this project I collaborated with a group of high school students at the Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in Hunter’s Point, an industrial lower-income area on the southern side of San Francisco. This location is often a starting point for new immigrant families and it is incredibly multi-cultural. A majority of the students I worked with were first and second generation immigrants from such places as Samoa, Vietnam, Cambodia, Mexico and China. These teens not only struggle to bridge the gap between adolescence and adulthood, they have the additional challenge of retaining their sense of cultural identity while being immersed in the American inner city experience.
Together we engaged in a project exploring ‘Identity.’
I asked the students to consider their ‘sense of self’ within several contexts. How do you describe yourself? Who are your role models? Which people in your life influence your sense of identity and how? How do you think others perceive you? How do you want to be seen and represented?
Portraits The portrait sessions were collaborations between the students and myself. Using a 1930’s Crown Graphic 4 x 5 camera and Polaroid type 55 film allowed us to create a positive and negative within minutes of taking the picture. The students were able to see their photographs immediately and make decisions about their poses, expressions, etc.
Still-Lifes We explored the many ways identity is expressed. As an assignment, we imagined what an archeologist uncovering their selected personal items in 100 years from now would figure out about them. Collecting and arranging their personal belongings into an autobiographical still-life became a story-telling device.
