For El Puente: On Juvenile Incarceration and Foster Care in Argentina (working title), I travel to La Plata, Argentina to work with incarcerated juveniles. I partner with El Puente Arte y Cultura, an organization that facilitates access to the arts with underserved communities, and the artist residency program Residencia Corazón. Through these partnerships, I gain regular access to four juvenile prisons near La Plata in Buenos Aires province: Centro Cerrado Almafuerte, Centro de Recepción Eva Perón, Centro Cerrado Eva Perón, and Centro Cerrado Pellegrini.

I approach this work and these spaces humbly and earnestly, eager to listen, learn, and find productive ways to contribute to this important conversation on global incarceration. The camera is a focal point in my conversations with the youth. I work by observing, photographing, and sharing images on the camera screen for feedback and further conversation. The youth are also active participants, making photographs themselves with my primary camera, secondary camera, and phone. After each visit, I share images through their personal phones (initially permitted during the pandemic and now difficult to rescind) and DMs on Instagram. Some of the portraits I made were posted on their personal Instagrams, a special kind of validation when a young person shares your image in that way.

The photographs we created together pierce my heart like an arrow, both through the powerful imagery and the challenging realities of the social conditions within these prison spaces. I will continue to work with El Puente and Residencia Corazón to identify pathways for public policy impact. I am currently working on an artist book that can be shared with both the youth and the public.

I am deeply grateful to my Argentinian collaborators, whose dedication and support have been instrumental in making this work possible:  Juan Pablo Ferrar, Rodrigo Mirto, Claudia Lopez Lombardi, Mora Gutierrez, Luciano Guglielmino, Carlos Ignacio Bogino, Aime Portela Gallo, and Hanna Kratsman-Robles.