American Youth, Redux Pictures

contrasto, 2009

240 pp., 200 color and B&W illustrations, 10” x 7.7”

reviewed by

Corey Dzenko

 

While photographs offer visual information, they do not provide in-depth knowledge beyond surface appearance.  It is when they are contextualized with titles and captions that they take on much greater meaning.  This is illustrated by Redux Pictures’ American Youth, a collection of images by Redux Pictures’ photographers that depicts 18-24 year olds in the United States. 

The organization of this book groups images together under the four themes of Live, Love, Work, and Play but without nearby context of when or why the photograph was taken.  If the images are viewed without reading the introductory essay or the captions provided later in the book, it is unclear as to why some of the images are placed under their respective categories.  For example, an image under Love shows an interior of a home as strong lighting floods into the entry.  A pair of boots sits on the floor in one of the doorframes of this home.  The caption explains that this is the home of Taryn Davis, founder of The American Widow Project, which she created to help young widows who lost their husbands to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  These boots are her deceased husband’s.  Gina Le Vay photographed Davis and other members of this project; these women are shown in poses such as displaying their tattoos in memory of their husbands, and holding or wearing their husbands’ clothing.  It is the captions that offer some information about the subjects’ specific situations.

In another project, placed under the category Live, young men and women are photographed looking straight at the camera against a white background.  They are presented in a grid of color images across two pages.  Two more pages similarly follow the first grid, but the second grid contains photographs of some of the same subjects.  Just viewing the grids without their text, it is unclear why some of the figures are repeated and could even be read as a mistake.  A caption in the back of the book, 150 pages after the photographic grids, and the introductory essay explain that these grids are Ben Baker’s “sociological study.”  Baker photographed his subjects and complied the images to represent demographic data “to show the racial face of American youth.”  The first grid represents current 2009 data while the second grid represents predictions of demographics in 2050, “where the minority is now the majority.”  Baker’s project needs its caption in order for the project’s meaning to become apparent to viewers.

American Youth contains an impressive variety of photographic approaches by Redux Pictures’ photographers, from gritty black and white photographs to sleek, editorial-looking color images and varied subjects.  Just make sure to find and read the textual context that adds a great depth to the images.  Without context, the photographs may become reduced to a collection of stereotypes.  Yet with specific details, the subjects retain their individual stories and identities, and the experiences specific to this generation of American Youth.