EYE CANDY

These Are the Best Photographs By Teenagers In America In 2017

Cameron Barnes Love, 2017 Arbor View High School, NV.jpg
​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

If there is anything that has been heartening about America in 2017, it’s the sight of impassioned young people flooding the streets protesting Donald Trump, as well as the flash points that have flared up during his presidency. This generation of teenagers may grow up to be the most politically active in recent memory, and the issues that they care deeply about—from identity to gun violence—are well represented in “2017 America,” a group exhibition of 2,000 photographs by students from over 30 states currently at the School of Visual Arts gallery in New York. SVA’s BFA Photography and Video program asked high schoolers from all over to submit images that represented their views of America in 2017—and also, maybe, hopefully, they offer a preview of what America could look like in the future.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Cameron Barnes’s Love, 2017. Arbor View High School, NV.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Rachel King’s A World of Devices, 2017 Lake Travis High School, TX

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Madison Andrews’s Almost Heaven, 2017. A.W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Allison Asselbergs’s Unnamed, 2017. Academy of the Holy Angels, NY

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Elizabeth Mizer’s Lolita, 2017. Wauwatosa East High School, WI

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Tycho Burwell’s Muslim America, 2017. East Hampton High School, NY

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Alexandra Aguirre’s America, 2017. Loyola School, NY

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Kyle Yeung’s Itch, 2017. Harrison High School, N

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Holly Atkinson’s Slats, 2017, Jupiter Community High School, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Coker Novosad-Wagner’s Society’s Expectations, 2017. Saint Mary’s Hall, TX

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Antonio Lobos’s Freedom, 2017. Lyndhurst High School, NJ

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Alexander Yan’s Dinner Table, 2017. American Heritage High School, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Allison Trabold’s Still Our Best Friends, 2017. Sanford H. Calhoun High School, NY

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Olivia Stock’s America? 2, 2017. Lakota West High School, OH

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Marc Ludwigsen’s Obstruction, 2017. A. W. Dreyfoos School of the Arts, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Benjamin Matos’s All Down the Drain, 2017. Somerset Berkley Regional High School, MA.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Richard Lau’s NYC, 2017. Great Neck South High School, NY

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Jessica Kaufman’s Over the Rope, 2016. American Heritage, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Jessica Kaufman’s This Girl Can, 2016. American Heritage, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Sonceray Hewett’s Harvey, 2017. Saint Mary’s Hall, TX

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Hannah Hawkins’s Trump’s America, 2016. Whitney Young Magnet School, IL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Josh Dunst’s Make it Stop, 2017. The Dalton School, NY.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Yesenia Corona’s Studies Interrupted, 2017. Fort Pierce Central, FL

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Tylor Chhat’s Untitled, 2017. Banneker High School, GA.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Samuel Dobens’s NYPD 1, 2017. Fiorello H. LaGuardia High School of Music and Performing Arts, NY.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Ryan Engelbrecht’s Diemond, 2017. Tenafly High School, NJ.

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​Courtesy of the SVA BFA Photography and Video Department

Lauren Gillet’s Rest, 2017. American Heritage High School, FL.