The Winners of Our Teen Photo Essay Contest Depict Community and Why It Matters

Our “Where We Are” photo essay contest asked a lot of students. First they had to choose and document an interesting local, offline community, both photographing and interviewing its members. Then, they had to weave it all together with an introduction and captions so that, whether they focused on a roller derby team in Los Angeles or nomadic reindeer herders in China, we viewers were taken inside.

But it wasn’t the technical requirements that intimidated these teenagers most. Instead, they told us over and over in their accompanying process statements, the hardest and the most rewarding part of the project was getting up the nerve to approach people they didn’t know.

Here is how Allison Park, 16, a runner-up, described it:

Living in suburban New Jersey all my life, I’ve always been on the outskirts of New York City, not only geographically but culturally. As a teen who has always been into alternative music and style, I have grown up feeling like I would fit in so much better with N.Y.C. culture and N.Y.C. teens. That’s why I seized the opportunity to immerse myself in an underground, D.I.Y. group of N.Y.C. kids making music.

The hardest part for me was honestly getting over the fear of reaching out to this foreign community. These kids were intimidating to me because I thought they were so cool. But as I got over my fear and actually got to know them, I realized that everyone was welcoming. I made friends right off the bat.

Allison calls the community she documented “a vessel of connection, expression and escape,” and that feeling is palpable not just in her work, but in the work of all the winners. Because of the length and complexity of each piece, we are featuring just one photo essay in full. But after you scroll through our winner’s delightful piece, we hope you’ll also visit this collection to see how nine more runners-up overcame fear to make something wonderful.

As always, we invite you to leave comments for these young photojournalists to tell them what you thought.

All finalists are listed in alphabetical order by the creator’s first name. If you are one of the finalists and would like your last name published, please have a parent or guardian complete our permission form [PDF] and send it to us at [email protected].