Steve Davis

Photographer

Captured Youth

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Clients: PBS, New York Times Magazine, The Seattle Weekly, Esquire (Russia) New York Times Lens

School: University of Idaho

Maple Lane, 1997

Maple Lane School, 1997 Christopher (Pleger?)

Maple Lane, 1997

William Enright? 17

Chris and Jacob, Maple Lane, 1997

Intensive Management Unit, Green Hill, 2000

Green Hill. 2000

Antoine Burns 16

Green Hill. 2000

Intensive Management Unit,Green Hill. 2000

Intensive Management Unit, Green Hill, 2000

Green Hill. 2000

Remann Hall, Tacoma, 2002

Oakridge, 2005

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Thumbnail of Maple Lane School, 1997 Christopher (Pleger?)

Thumbnail of Chris and Jacob, Maple Lane, 1997

Thumbnail of Intensive Management Unit, Green Hill, 2000

Public Project

Captured Youth

Copyright Steve Davis 2024

Date of Work Feb 1997 - Jul 2005

Updated Feb 2020

Location Washington

Topics Abandonment, Adolescence, Community, Crime, Documentary, Fine Art, Gangs, Incarceration, Interior, Isolation, Minority, Photography, Photojournalism, Portrait, Portraiture, Prison, Social Justice, Spotlight, Teens, Youth

Since 1997 I've been photographing incarcerated teens in Washington State. They live in state and county institutions, often referred to as “schools.” In fact, they are jails for juniors--full of secrets and hidden from the public's eye. Inside, everything is bright and fully exposed. Everyone is watched. The residents are here for committing crimes, but bad luck and accidents of birth contribute to the likelihood of imprisonment.

I’ve been continually struck by the simultaneous vacuity of these institutions and the intensity and passion found in the faces of its young residents. It is these faces that I asked to do the talking. There is more to learn from the eyes than from the architecture. There are exceptions. The Green Hill School’s Intensive Management Unit, for example, demanded my attention as the most inhumane living environment I ever witnessed.

It is my hope that as viewers look at these images, they consider some of the messy and complicated issues surrounding such a great number of young people who live, laugh, and suffer in exile.

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