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| In America, we have a variety of choices but those choices are limited by background, environment, individual talents and today's wide polarization of American society. Hence, we make our own choices at age twenty-one but they are certainly limited by cultural pressures and norms.
I first became fascinated with this idea as I photographed and wrote Rodney's Crime, the story of a young, twenty-one year-old from Pittsburgh's worst slum who faced a murder charge. Woodson had been choked, robbed and beaten before shooting and killing his aggressor. By all accounts, Woodson was a personable, well-liked father who had never before been in trouble. The question was--could Woodson have escaped without taking another man's life? I wondered if Woodson would have had cause to carry a gun at all if he had been from a better, safer part of town. If he had come from a different background, he may have at that point in his life been a successful college student with a bright future. |
American freedom gives us great opportunity but today it also limits our choices due to societal norms and economic realities. Just as children of unwed mothers often become unwed mothers themselves, sons and daughters of doctors often become doctors. My goal for documenting life at age twenty-one has been to let the viewer make his or her own conclusions about the variety of lifestyles in our culture. There is so much right but also so much wrong in present day America. By looking directly into the eyes of twenty-one year-olds, my hope is that the viewer will recognize positive changes in evolving America while realizing that for some with limited opportunity, both economic and personal, time seems to stand still. ¡X John Kaplan |
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