Melissa Ann Pinney photographed the everyday moments of adolescence inside Chicago Public Schools during a seven-year artist residency. Her series Becoming Themselves portrays students, especially those marginalized and underrepresented, as they navigate identity, community and the many transformations of growing up.
We interviewed Pinney about the making of her series and the stories behind some of her favorite images. The interview has been edited for clarity and length.
What drew you to photograph inside Chicago Public Schools?
I was invited by Artists in Public Schools, an organization that pairs artists for residencies in schools all over the city, to photograph Bell School and Ogden International Schools. It was an incredible opportunity to photograph and immerse myself in often overlooked communities of children and teens in Chicago.
Since I was in my teens and photographing my own family, childhood and adolescence has been a focus of my work. Girl Ascending, my 2010 monograph, explored the social lives and coming-of-age rituals of my daughter, Emma, her friends and teammates. The possibilities inherent in widening the scope of my work beyond these established personal connections was exciting.
When you first started, what kinds of images or stories did you hope to capture?
I'm interested in photography as a process, one of paying close attention to the richness and mystery already present in the everyday world. I capture what's happening in the moment, and the story reveals itself afterwards in contemplation of the work itself.
This is an opportunity to make what I think of as real pictures — images that reward sustained and repeated viewings and eschew stereotype and cliché. I had no idea what to expect in the schools, but through trial and error, I found opportunities to make pictures as I became part of the school community. I never know what the students will do next — their beauty, their compassion and their conflicts are unrehearsed. The teens collaborate in the art-making by welcoming me into their world.
My photographs are both documents of a time and place and works of art. References to contemporary culture, to history and to ideas of representation are all embedded in the pictures. When I began photographing students in three different Chicago public schools, I had no idea of what was to come — how the project would evolve and shift through an ongoing global pandemic, a renewed focus on systemic racial and gender inequities and rampant gun violence. Now it's a document of a historic time.
How much time did you spend working on Becoming Themselves?
This project is ongoing and still evolving since 2018, when I started photographing in Bell School. In Their Own Light was the first book of my early pictures from an elementary, middle and several high schools. In Becoming Themselves, I focus solely on two high schools — Ogden International High School and Senn High School — between 2019 and 2025.
What was the most challenging part of this project?
It is very hard to witness the grief and ongoing trauma many students experience as part of their everyday lives, especially when we hear that a student in the community has been shot and killed. Tragically, eight students I photographed died that way. The trauma of gun violence reverberates everywhere.
What's the story behind one of your favorite photographs?
With her My Little Pony leggings and arms loaded with jewelry, Lizzie Williams clearly stood out in the hallway crowded with students at their lockers gathering their coats and bags. I introduced myself and asked if Lizzie wanted to make a portrait. We went to the old gym for its brilliant light and huge south-facing windows. In the midst of working out Lizzie's pose and position, the boys basketball team starting running laps around the gym, casting shadows onto the wall where Lizzie stood. At first I was annoyed by this unexpected disruption, but I soon realized that, far from an unwelcome distraction, the shadows suggest another level of mystery and complexity. I'm grateful for serendipity!
The DePaul University Art Museum added this photograph and six others from the project to their permanent collection last spring. A class of Senn students, many of whom are represented in the photographs, took a field trip to the museum to see the works.
Were there any moments that surprised you during the process?
Many moments surprised me.
One day early last fall, a student I hadn't met before asked me to take his picture. I was happy to do so and we found a place by the windows with some light. When I looked through my lens, I suddenly recognized Axle, a student I'd first met two years before, when he transferred to Senn. I had photographed him several other times. Axle had transformed himself radically with a new short hair cut and different style of dress.
I am always surprised and moved when a student tells me that the project made a positive impact on their life. Travion Williams, at Ogden International High School, said he was shy, self-conscious and unsure of himself when we made his portrait in 2019. Travion's portrait was one of the 84 portraits installed on panels in the school's front lobby in the summer of 2020. Classes would be completely online that fall, but outdoor sports were still allowed. When the cross country team started practicing, Travion discovered that his friends and teammates recognized and admired him. It changed the way he saw himself.
It's rewarding when I'm told by a student that my work is important to them. As my ties to the community have deepened — I've come to understand the meaning this project holds for me and for the students themselves, who tell me they feel truly "seen" by participating in the project. The students have profoundly affected the ways I understand the lives of others; my relationships now transcend school to include family events, parties and baby showers. I couldn't have predicted the strong connections I would develop with some of the students, who keep in touch even years after they've graduated.
When I brought Sophiat Agboola a print of her portrait, she told me it was inspiring. Surprised, I asked in what way it was inspiring and to whom — I couldn't guess. Sophiat said she had occasionally been made fun of for wearing her natural hair; her portrait had given her the confidence to do so.
Of course, the pandemic surprised me. And the fact that a project I expected to last one year could still be challenging and rewarding after seven was a complete surprise, too.
Do you have any memorable anecdotes or encounters from your time in the schools ?
I photographed Jakolbi Lard only once, at prom in 2019, drawn by the broken heart he had shaved in to his hair. In January 2022, I learned that Jakolbi had been shot and killed. Jakolbi's death and the passage of time bring a different perspective to the broken heart shaved into his scalp. Now I see the wings formed by the mirror frame behind Jakolbi's back. Jakolbi's mother, Patricia Lard, told me that rather than being heartbroken, he was the heart-breaker. She brought Jakolbi's daughter, Jamyah, to an exhibition that included Jakolbi's portrait in 2023. She believes that exhibiting Jakolbi's portrait honors his life. Ms. Lard thanked me for "... seeing in her Sun (sic) what the world did not."
Has working in schools changed how you think about education or childhood?
The students have a lot more agency than kids in my generation or even my daughter's generation did. These students are free to define themselves through their chosen teams and clubs, their dress, sexual orientation, pronouns and sometimes taking on a new name. There's a freedom in the acceptance and allowance for difference I see and a closeness in the physical camaraderie between many of the students.
I started reading the news more closely when I began this project. CPS (Chicago Public Schools) and the CTU (the Chicago Teachers Union) are frequently in the headlines. It's clear that Chicago's past is linked to its present by a history of events affecting the city in housing, education, racial and gender equity and immigration. All of these issues flow through the permeable wall between the city and the public schools.
What do you hope viewers take away from seeing these images?
I hope these pictures encourage a deeper consideration and appreciation of the radiant young people in our public schools that goes far beyond the stereotypes. I intend these portraits to honor and commemorate those who are vulnerable and often underrepresented.
Melissa Ann Pinney is an artist based in Chicago. You can see more of her work on her website, MelissaAnnPinney.com, or on Instagram, at @melissa_ann_pinney.
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