Shadow of a Teenage Daydream
New York City, June 2021 - ongoing
In June 2021, three kids skipped down the path right towards me in Tompkins Square Park. They were fifteen years old then, and I was still in college. I had been walking for miles that day trying to clear my head. I asked to make their portrait. Before this day, I would roam the streets aimlessly with my camera. I did not know what it was that I was looking for, but I couldn’t stop my aimless search — my romanticized search for self.
The portrait that I made of those three kids that day changed everything for me. Since that day, I have spent nearly every weekend fully immersed in the lives of these kids that I met that summer day along with their many friends. Like a shadow, I am documenting the group until the last days of their youth. At the same time, I have journeyed on my own path of self-discovery. Little do they know and did I know at the start, that a portrait of them is also a portrait of me.
Press:
Leica Fotografie International, print feature, October 2024
Millimeters and words, print feature, March 2024
The Creative Review feature in Gem Fletcher’s Exposure column, February 2024
Matte Editions, Exciting Photography Now, print feature, December 2023
Summer of Something Special Volume V., print feature, November 2023
Dazed, “Intimate portraits of New York’s non-conformist teens, online, August 2023
Marie Claire Korea, Photo essay on New York City youth and interview, online and print, May 2023
i-D, “Photographing teen subcultures in New York’s East Village,” online, interview, February 2023
Leica Fotografie International, “Sara Messinger: Teenagers,” online interview, January 2023
New York Magazine, Feature in the 18th annual issue Reasons to Love New York, online and print, December 2022
Larger portfolio available upon request