Commie High

In the 1980s, I went to an “alternative” high school in Ann Arbor, MI, called Community High School. “Commie High” was kind of a school for misfits, but we thought we were the coolest people in the world. At the time, part of my “classroom without walls” curriculum was fine art photography courses taken at a local college. I shot a lot of tri-x film with a little Nikon FE and a 50mm lens that my dad gave me. When I recently went down to my basement to dig out these negatives and see if there was anything worth using in a book I wanted to make for my son, who will be 13 soon, I found far more than I had anticipated. This box of negatives has been dragged around with me, kept in storage, since about 1987. Upon opening it, I felt like I’d received a long distance, time traveling love letter from teenage me. I had remembered this time as somewhat dark. There was some exploration into sex and drugs that I don’t have great memories of, and in the late 80s I lost someone dear to me to suicide. But now, viewing these images of these distant teenagers, I can’t help but see that we were still quite innocent. It certainly gives me a different angle from which to view my own son’s coming teenage years, whereas my reason for digging them out was to give HIM perspective. ​This “new” work I am sharing is roughly 35 years old. Back in those days, you filed out your negative carrier for printing to show that you had cropped your image in-camera, and I did the same for the makeshift copy stand I used to shoot these digitally and clean them up. I hope you enjoy this time capsule view of post punk 80s teenagers who were just trying to figure out their world. Thanks for looking!