Looking at Our Hometowns

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Thomas Dougherty An engaged couple danced before family members after a wedding rehearsal in Wolfeboro, N.H. Photo by Thomas Dougherty, 15.

You can view the entire “My Hometown” slide show here, or by clicking on the image above.

What would happen if you asked high school students to help create a 21st-century portrait of the country by turning their cameras on their neighborhoods, families, friends and schools?

You would have “My Hometown” â€" a vibrant document of 4,289 images submitted by teenagers in school- or community-based photography programs across the United States, including rural villages and urban neighborhoods, wealthy suburbs and blue-collar Rust Belt towns.

While participants only photographed their own communities, together, the images create an important and lasting document of America today as seen by teenagers. They are published today in an interactive feature that opens with a selection of 145 photographs and is also searchable by state and by photographer. Many of the images will be archived at the Library of Congress in the Prints and Photographs Division.

The project was inspired by our belief in the power of photography as an educational tool, and by a desire to help young people communicate the way they see their lives and their communities.

More than 3,000 teenagers in 45 states participated in “My Hometown.” In the final presentation, curated to give a sampling of the best photos from a cross-section of the country, there are five images from NYC Salt, a nonprofit program serving inner-city teenagers, and eight from photography students at Miss Porter’s School, a boarding and day school for girls in Farmington, Conn., that was founded in 1843.

Teenagers from Granada High School photographed their small town of Planada, Calif. (population 4,269), and put their images â€" accompanied by a rap song, “Planada Rising,” written for the project by a student, Jose Ramos â€" on YouTube. The lyrics include, “We come from dirt and dust and now we’re brick; our hearts are strong because we’ve worked hard for this.”


We want to thank all of the teenagers who participated, and the teachers who encouraged and guided them. Jesse Newman was integral to nurturing the project, and Krystal Grow looked at every image and every caption. We are grateful to the Alliance for Young Artists and Writers Foundation for helping us get the word out to photography teachers. We owe a special debt of gratitude to Ben Koski and James Thomas, both for the elegant Web display and for the intuitive submission process that they created.

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