The Geography of Youth
In 2010 photographer Alan Winslow and I decided we were interested in documenting our own generation as we came into adulthood. We designed The Geography of Youth, a project where we would travel around the world by bicycle (cheap!) interviewing Millennials about their lives, making their portraits and sharing their stories online, and later in a public art show. In early 2011 we ran a Kickstarter campaign, secured sponsorship, wrote some grants and hit the road. We traveled by bicycle from Alaska to Argentina, then in a loop around much of Europe and Morocco. In 2013, due to a knee injury, we flew back to the United States, converted a Honda Element into a camper and traveled 14,000 miles around the United States to complete the project.
Eager to expand the project to include more voices, in 2013, we began an online campaign inviting all individuals born between 1980 and 1995 to share a self-portrait and answer the same twelve interview questions that we were asking hundreds of Millennials around the world.
In 2014, we further expanded the project by selecting six photographers from around the globe to contribute one portrait and interview per day for 30 days on Instagram via the hashtag #geographyofyouth. The photographers were: from the UK, Duncan Harvey (@duncanharvey); from South Korea, Juanita Hong (@juanitahong); from Kenya, Joe Were (@jaydabliu); from Turkey, Umit Savas (@umitko); and from Indonesia, Amanda Sutiono (@amandakusai) and Zahrah Thahira (@rarazth).
The Geography of Youth was covered in New York Magazine, BuzzFeed, and New York Times. The hundreds of portraits and interviews were assembled into a public art show that had its world premiere at Photoville in Brooklyn, New York from September 18th-28th, 2014.