I've been narrowing down my story quite a bit. After arriving here, I quickly realized that "what it's like to grow up on Catalina" was so broad that it would take me a year to cover all the aspects.
I had to decide which angle I would take as far as WHO to talk to. I could have included parents and teachers, or older members of the community who have lived here to hear what they have to say about growing up on the island... why they choose to raise their kids here, etc. But I consciously made the decision that I only want to hear from the kids themselves. I decided this because I think it's more important to hear what it's like being a kid here NOW, as opposed to someone's reflections on their experiences, and also I think that a parent's perspective on why they raise their kids here is negligible, compared to what the kids themselves have to say.
I also decided that although I photographed some younger children, I wanted to focus mainly on teenagers because I found their interviews to be more revealing, since they have more experiences to reflect upon.
I also decided to limit myself to the city of Avalon (where about 98% of the kids live), rather than go around to the small village of Two Harbors on the other side and try shooting there as well. I feel like growing up in Avalon is extremely different than growing up in Two Harbors, and trying to cover both places in the same story would water everything down (an inch wide and a mile deep, right?)
While I was shooting it also became clear that you can't capture "what it's like to GROW up" in photos... (at least not in one quarter), because the whole experience of growing up spans a lot of time, and it's a personal experience for everyone. This made me realize that peoples memories and reflections are extremely neccessary in telling my story. As I was conducting my interviews, all the pieces were coming together for me because I could see the same recurring threads in all the interviews. Regardless of whether I was interviewing a popular cheerleader, a pot head, or the school weirdo, certain opinions were shared across the board. Since I think that the real meat of my story exists in what these kids had to tell me, I want to include a portrait series with my final edit. Each portrait will be connected to a pertinent chunk of interview, and when all the portraits and text are viewed together it will paint a larger picture. So, I'm imagining the final product will look like 12 pj style shots with captions, and then 8 or so portraits with associated interviews (numbers just a rough idea, as I still have a lot of editing to do)
I find the most fascinating story here to be the way that the island effects the youth. A lot of the kids really seem to be thriving here... taking advantage of the comfort of the tight community, making strong friendships, exploring nature, living somewhere extremely safe, etc. But all 13 people I interviewed describe this place as (in so many words) a "loser factory". It seems like the very uniqueness and closeness of the island, becomes the same thing that handicaps children as they become adults because they can't handle the transition into the "big world". Most of them have never experienced having to make new friends, or going to a new school (since the school is K-12), and many of the kids only spend a handful of days a year away from the island. There are throngs of kids who recently graduated high school (or are about to graduate) and they constantly complain about how "boring" the island is and how they have to "drink and smoke to have any fun"... however, they find themselves unable to leave. And many who do leave, come back within a few months. All this wouldn't be so bad, if it weren't for the fact that there is no college on the island (a research branch of USC, but no independent college). This creates large quantities of young adults who remain on the island with no formal education. Most other small towns in America have a college somewhere nearby, so if kids can't find the independence to leave their hometown, they can still commute to the closest college by... but the islanders don't have this option.
With the photo essay portion of my story I want to give a taste of what life is like for the kids here - the physical atmoshere, the closeness between friends, how at ease the kids are in this town, their proximity to nature, how they spend their time, etc. Then I want to be able to tell the larger story about kids getting stuck here, etc, with a portrait/interview section (since it's more difficult to visually show that someone is choosing to stay here and why).
Okay! If you actually had the patience to read all of that, then you probably know enough about my story to help me edit what I have so far:
http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v628/fotolace/CatalinaLooseEdit/
I have rough captions written for most of the photos so you know what's going on. Enjoy.
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