What does America look like to young people today?
Well, just as the Farm Security Administration unleashed a team of photographers to chronicle the United States in the 1930s, Lens is beginning a new interactive project called “My Hometown.”
In the coming months, we are asking high school students to help create a 21st century portrait of America, turning their cameras on their neighborhoods, families, friends and schools. We are hoping the project will allow young people from bustling cities, Rust Belt towns and rural outposts to capture their communities in all their complexities — from portraits and fleeting moments to sweeping landscapes and quiet insights.
Since we are soliciting submissions from teenagers in high school photography classes and community programs, participants must either be enrolled in high school or be 14 to 18 years old. All submissions must be uploaded under the supervision of a photography class teacher or program instructor by the May 1 deadline.
As with our 2010 project, “A Moment in Time,” the resulting collection of photographs will be shown in an interactive gallery of several thousand pictures that will be sortable by geography or theme. We will also highlight select images in a series of posts on the Lens Blog. Many of the photos will be archived at the Library of Congress (just like the Farm Security Administration) photos.
For you teachers and instructors, this is an unparalleled opportunity to engage your photography students in studying and documenting their community.
And for you high schoolers, here is your chance to be heard.
Here’s how it works:
If your high school or community-based photography program wants to participate, the instructor should contact the Lens editors by e-mail at [email protected]. We will respond with a comprehensive overview of “My Hometown.”
We will start accepting entries on March 20. We are not accepting applications before then because we want you to take your time. The more effort you put in, the better this historical document will be.
Each student’s submission will be limited to four images. We anticipate that almost all of the images submitted will run and will do our best to ensure each student has at least one image in the final interactive.
The instructors should supervise the caption writing, entries and uploading of images.
Photographs can be made on any kind of camera, although if you are using a cellphone camera please do not use filter effects.
Submissions should be in jpeg files between one and five megabytes. Please keep digital manipulation and postprocessing to a minimum.
If you are involved or know of any outstanding photography programs for high school age kids, either in schools or community based, please let us know — emails us at [email protected].
Follow @JamesEstrin and @nytimesphoto on Twitter. Lens is also on Facebook.
