PHOTOGRAPHY OF YOUTH

Today, mediums are nearly as numerous as the stories told through them. The Internet constantly gives rise to new communities, conversations, and outlets, fresh channels through which we share images and text with such speed and consistency that we nearly bury our tales right after we tell them. Rarely, if ever, do we take a step back to look at the whole of our output.

But, in Berlin, a group of four young women—Carolina Cavalli, Tatiana de Pahlen, Sofia de Pahlen, and Elizabeth Gilpin—have been quietly amassing a series of images sourced entirely from blogs, the subject matter of which they’ve deemed “the identification tags of our Y Generation.” YOUTH, the corresponding publication, was released this month, following an earlier presentation at Le Dictateur in Milan with a New York launch coming in May at Half Gallery.

YOUTH, ultimately, is as much about the narrative style as it is about the narrative, and it’s clear from first glance that the trappings of youth—boys and girls on road trips, kids lazing away summer days, adults barely clad in the wild—carry from generation to generation. As Gilpin says, “Maybe there will always be American flags, but anyone would notice the difference between the way in which our road trips are told and the way in which our elders and teachers narrated them.”

Where YOUTH excels—and where the Internet generates its power—is in its diverse, albeit largely Western, subject matter. It’s not all beauty, nor all sunbathed Ryan McGinley views, but a swelling combination of youthful rebellion, urban grit, and suburban dissociation. Of this realism, Gilpin says, “I often have the feeling that in photography something really true is something really beautiful.”

The collection, in this, is one of many viewpoints, styles, and matters, a byproduct of a selection process that, Gilpin says, is “nothing more than a conversation among peers.” This instantaneous, back-and-forth editorial approach is quietly reflected in a final product not claiming too much or too little. Instead, it provides backing to the authors’ drive to create the work in the first place. “Our truth is not absolute,” Gilpin reminds us, “but we are accidentally experts in the field.”

YOUTH is out now from Éditions des Syrtes. The book will be launched on May 2 at Half Gallery, 43 East 78th Street, New York.

Brady Donnelly is the assistant editor of The Last Magazine and a digital product director based in Brooklyn, New York.

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