Central Juvenile Hall, Los Angeles, California 2009.

Richard Ross has pushed live the online component of his latest project Juvenile-In-Justice.

It seems as if this is a natural development from his project Architecture of Authority. For some, it would be quite worrying if Ross had studied oppressive architecture without following up with inquiry into the vulnerable lives within.

American youth is a vogue topic for photographers; Ross’ work (tactically or innocently) should not be excluded from any national narrative about US teenage experience.

Red Cliff Ascent, Enterprise, Utah 2008

Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center, Biloxi, Mississippi 2009.

Ventura Youth Correctional Facility, Ventura, California 2008

Statement:

“To date, I have photographed Angel’s Flight (L.A.), group homes, foster homes, ICE juvenile holding, Los Prietos Boys Camp, LAPD, SFPD, EL Paso PD, Ventura Youth Correctional Facility, Santa Barbara Juvenile Correctional facility, Sexual Assault Response Team Examination Rooms, interview and exam rooms for sexually abused children, juvenile courtrooms, high schools, Children of the Night (Van Nuys), JHS, Montessori classrooms, Maryvale (a former orphanage), CPS interview rooms, El Paso Juvenile Courtrooms, half-way houses, reform schools, maximum security Giddings, TX, lock-down and nonlock-down shelters, SW Keys, ORR, ICE, DHS, and CBP to name a few. I have primarily focused on kids that are not the “Kids R Us” type of juvenile, but rather minors that become part of a system because they have failed, or their families have failed them, or their society has failed them. Earl Dunlap, the Director of Cooke County Detention Center, welcomed me to his facility with the words: “Welcome to the gates of hell.”

I am trying to get the broadest range of images and texts. I recently photographed a family that has two grown sons, yet took in two separated brothers and two separated sisters in foster care in order to reunite the siblings and start a second family. So there are some positive and quite inspirational portions of my research as well.”

Suicide Practice Dummy, Fairbanks Youth Facility, Fairbanks, Alaska 2010

New Beginnings Juvenile Rehabilitation Facility, Washington D.C. 2009

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