After School Special

As a latchkey kid raised when parenting philosophy tended to be more hands-off than helicopter, I spent the majority of my time alone. Navigating a gritty inner-city neighborhood with one of the highest crime rates in the country was unnerving. Fear, loneliness, and boredom were regular companions. 

With the series After School Special, I revisit the most-formative decade of my childhood and construct a visual memoir born from my adult perspective.

Using street photography in my current city of Los Angeles and hometown of Richmond, VA., I make unstaged images that reflect my pre-adolescent experience. I then superimpose my 1970s self into each scene, a fantastical nod to children’s street culture documentarians of the past. 

Generation X is considered to be one of the least-parented, least-nurtured generations in history. This was tough for a child like myself who craved a Leave It To Beaver home life. And it caused me to feel shame. 

Now a middle-aged adult, one who welcomes life’s complexities and nuances, I see and celebrate the self-reliance and tenacity that was born of those times.