We are pleased to announce the opening of our next exhibition, Try Youth as Youth, in partnership with the ACLU of Illinois.

The ACLU of Illinois and David Weinberg Photography invite you to examine the juvenile justice system in America through an exhibit of photography, sculpture and video installation aiming to shed light on the lives of incarcerated youth. Try Youth as Youth features works by four artists with a shared dedication for institutional reform of the systems that far too often dehumanize young people and fail to provide them with constitutionally adequate conditions and services.

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Tirtza Even presents her video Natural Life, a two-channel projection installation that challenges the inequities in the juvenile justice system by depicting the stories of five individuals who were sentenced to a life without parole (“natural life”) for crimes they committed as youth. The video and accompanying sculptures make tangible the complexity of each individual’s story, the severity of the conviction and the anguish that ripples out onto the families of the prisoners, the victims and community at large. The elegiac, fractured structure of Even’s project twists together the oppressive conditions with the inevitability of change, both from within the convicted youth themselves and the world that exists beyond their internment.

Steve Davis began working on his project Captured Youth in 1997 after participating as a visiting artist at one of Washington State’s correctional facilities – commonly referred to as “schools.” These state-run facilities are the remnants of what were reform schools located on the outskirts of town, but what goes on within the security walls is far from educational or rehabilitative. This is where the subjects of Davis’ portraits restlessly reside. His images work to humanize the youth that have committed crimes or entered into the system by means of bad luck and accident of birth. Photographed and printed at a large-scale, these works catch you in their gaze and invite the viewer to see the innate human potential that the facilities’ architecture denies.

A 23-year-strong photojournalist for TIME Magazine, Steve Liss spent two years photographing and interviewing detainees, their parents, correction officers and counselors in Laredo, Texas. This work resulted in his book No Place for Children, published in 2005 by University of Texas Press. The youth in his black and white images suffer from drug dependencies, mental illness, depression, and violence. Pictures of a 10 year-old boy in an oversized uniform confined to an oversized cinderblock cell crying for his mother in confusion encapsulate the contents of this vast project. Liss has captured the heartbreaking realities of the youngest incarcerated children and the cruelties they face.

The volume of Richard Ross’ project Juveniles-In-Justice declares itself an institution. For 8 years Ross has photographed and interviewed in 31 states and 200+ facilities, a project that has yielded 10,000+ images and 1,000+ interviews. His images are paired with interviews to illustrate the multidimensional personalities of each inmate. The sight of isolation cells and restraint devices give cold and firm weight to the trauma inflicted by the prison state on hundreds of thousands of young people. Ross will also be presenting new work from two series that have evolved from his Juveniles-in-Justice project.

For more information regarding our exhibition & programming please visit: http://d-weinberg.com/tyay

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The ACLU of Illinois has been the principal protector of constitutional rights in the state since its founding in 1929.
The ACLU of Illinois (ACLU), and its affiliated Roger Baldwin Foundation (RBF), are non-partisan, non-profit organizations dedicated to protecting the liberties guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution, the state Constitution, and state/federal human rights laws. The ACLU accomplishes its goals through litigating, lobbying and educating the public on a broad array of civil liberties issues.

David Weinberg Photography is a gallery with the mission to educate and inform the public on issues of social justice. The gallery aims to provide an engaging environment for discourse on critical contemporary issues that concern the community. Joining artists with organizations in support and solidarity of their cause, the gallery works to produce tangible change and cultivate a culture of consciousness. A passion for education drives a developing photographic workshop program that aims to help high school students visualize their future through the medium of photography.

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Tags: ACLU, Richard Ross, River North, Steve Davis, Steve Liss, Tirtza Even