These photographs investigate children, teenagers, and young adults raised amidst a backdrop of economic decomposition in the neighborhoods of Michigan’s auto towns. Adolescence and early adulthood are characterized by both fragile uncertainty and exciting potential. I see these same characteristics reflected in the rebuilding process of the region.

Ten year project.

Syndicated is a photographic exploration of the everyday lives of kids, teens and young adults in areas that were used in both television shows and movies that depict coming-of-age stories. TV and Hollywood productions form a collective sense of adolescence and nostalgia for many middle-class Americans.

Influential shows and movies such as The Wonder Years established the basis of collective teenage memories. Syndicated as a project questions the authenticity of those depicted experiences, captures actual people existing in these sites, and suggests Hollywood’s impact on our cultural identity.

Ten (or more) year project. Will be edited for a book. Last shooting in summer 2023.

Zine published by Walls Divide Press. The following ten images are from this publication. The images in this series were taken in a historic neighborhood in North Tulsa called Greenwood. The 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre occurred in this area and resulted in the burning and destruction of a thirty-five square block area. This is the largest occurrence of racial violence in American history. The neighborhood was rebuilt by the 1940’s, but development for a new highway caused the area to decline again. This area of Tulsa contains a history of dualities related to prosperity and poverty as well as cultural pride and racial violence. There is the potential for rejuvenation in this part of Tulsa, but also the possibility of a literal erasure of the past due to gentrification if it is not documented. I am intentionally mixing photographic genres in this series.

Prints in Centennial often shown as large triptychs.

A new and ongoing series in Puerto Rico.

Electrificación is a photography project focuses on the everyday realities of living with an unreliable electrical grid and distressed infrastructure in Puerto Rico after repeated hurricanes. Rather than documenting the dramatic aftermath of storms, these photographs look at the quieter, ongoing ways these disruptions affect daily life as scene through images of the landscape, architecture, power generation and distribution methods, and related daily activities for people that reside in Puerto Rico.

This was upper level work made over multiple semesters in my Photography Studio course.

The theatre exists in, and creates, a heightened reality where people go to escape. To Hold a Mirror is a photography project that explores the sense of community and identity within theatre students, both actors and designers, and the work that goes into a show that is rarely visible to the majority of theatre-goers. The in-between and sometimes mundane moments that make up the majority of the students’ experiences are more revealing of the subculture than the performances. The sense of community forged among them becomes like a found family, one strengthened by their interactions with the space and with each other. -Katie Norton

Drew utilizes several different steps and materials in the production of his images. The original images were created using a computer-rendering program that has commercial applications to video game graphics. He then used a view camera to photograph the screen of his computer to create a photographic negative. Drew then scanned his film, made tonal adjustments in Photoshop, and printed onto inkjet transparencies. Finally Drew made contact prints in the darkroom from the transparencies. These pieces eventually led to his monograph that was published by Yoffy Press and Fw: Books, which was recently shortlisted for Aperture’s Paris Photo book awards.

Childbirth is one of the most natural and uncomfortable experiences, and only women undergo it. While this strength that all women share is incredible, the ability to bring life into the world is simultaneously used to define women as one identical unit. Some women choose to be mothers, but all women do not share that experience. Female identities are largely defined by cultural constructs of womanhood and motherhood. -Megan Hosmer

Shelby’s images are from the series There Was a Big Thunderstorm When I Was Born. She recently received her MFA from Cal Arts.