Michael Franzini is the author of One Hundred Young Americans. The book is a first-hand account of youth culture in America. It profiles one hundred teenagers in all fifty states. More than two hundred images show every kind of teenager from every part of the United States, mirroring census data for gender, race, religion and sexual orientation, balanced across urban, rural, suburban and small-town locations. “Our goal was to have a balance of city/suburban/rural as well as rich/poor/middle-class and mainstream/fringe.”
“These are not candid fly-on-the-wall documentary photographs. These are images in which there is a connection between the subject and the camera.”
I really enjoy how Franzini makes each of his subjects completely comfortable with the camera. He is able to establish a relaxing environment for each person that he was photographing. “We made it clear that we understood something about their world and that we were not there to judge them, that they were the center of attention and that they were in charge of how they wanted to present themselves, what they wanted to say, where they wanted to go.” This is the type of relationship that I strive to have with each of my subjects. I used to have a huge problem getting to a personal level with subjects that I did not really know but I have since been working on that issue. Reading about how Franzini treats his subjects helps me understand the type of relationship that is necessary between the photographer and the person that they are photographing.
We also have the same tendency in our photographs that there is eye contact between the subject and the camera lens. When asked why he always has people make eye contact when photographing them he responded, “I believe you can learn more about people by looking into their eyes and interacting with them than you can by watching without being noticed.” I have always felt that by looking directly into somebody’s eyes you can see a part of them that most people avoid. I have noticed that it starts to make people uncomfortable if you hold their gaze for too long and they will break eye-contact.
Gallery:
http://www.phhfineart.com/michael_franzini.html
Website:
http://www.michaelfranzini.com/mf-main.html
Interview: (REALLY GREAT INTERVIEW!!)
http://www.ypulse.com/ypulse-interview-michael-franzini-100-young-americans-2
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