SOCIOLOGY, REVISITED
While searching through old hard drives, I stumbled upon a video from high school labeled "Sociology." It was from a class that I took during my senior year, in 2006, and contained interviews with 10 young women who were my classmates. I asked them all the same questions:
1. What do you plan to do after you graduate high school?
2. What are your aspirations and goals for the future?
3. Do you plan on getting married? How important is marriage to you? How does it fit into your goals?
4. Do you plan on having children in the future? Is this a possibility or something you feel you must have in your life?
5. Where do you see yourself 20 or 30 years from now? Do you think you'll be working or staying home and supporting a family?
6. Do you feel in any way that your aspirations are limited by your gender? Is there anything you cannot achieve because you are female?
I decided to see if my classmates would be willing to be interviewed again—and to respond to their younger selves. None of them remember what they said in 2006, so the video acts as a time capsule, capturing the dreams and limitations of 18-year-old women growing up in a small Massachusetts town. The interviews will be combined with collaborative portraits and archival images, and I plan to return to the school to interview 10 current female-identifying students. This project investigates how our notions of gender and ambition shift with time, and whether this new generation defines them differently.
2019 - ongoing
While searching through old hard drives, I stumbled upon a video from high school labeled "Sociology." It was from a class that I took during my senior year, in 2006, and contained interviews with 10 young women who were my classmates. I asked them all the same questions:
1. What do you plan to do after you graduate high school?
2. What are your aspirations and goals for the future?
3. Do you plan on getting married? How important is marriage to you? How does it fit into your goals?
4. Do you plan on having children in the future? Is this a possibility or something you feel you must have in your life?
5. Where do you see yourself 20 or 30 years from now? Do you think you'll be working or staying home and supporting a family?
6. Do you feel in any way that your aspirations are limited by your gender? Is there anything you cannot achieve because you are female?
I decided to see if my classmates would be willing to be interviewed again—and to respond to their younger selves. None of them remember what they said in 2006, so the video acts as a time capsule, capturing the dreams and limitations of 18-year-old women growing up in a small Massachusetts town. The interviews will be combined with collaborative portraits and archival images, and I plan to return to the school to interview 10 current female-identifying students. This project investigates how our notions of gender and ambition shift with time, and whether this new generation defines them differently.
2019 - ongoing