Photographer Aaron Fallon shared an idea with seven other professional photographers in Los Angeles. Together, the group collaborated while donating their efforts to a three-year project that will move and inspire you. In today’s Huffington Post Gay Voices RaiseAChild.US“Let Love Define Family®” series installment, RaiseAChild.US founder and CEO Rich Valenza interviews the group that now calls themselves the Image Hoarders about their recently published book called “Aging Out.”
On a warm Southern California night, tucked away on a side street in the old part of Hollywood stands a huge white sound stage. A buzz from the building could be heard nearly a block away. The interior space was so packed with young Hollywood hipsters that the crowd spilled out the large thick metal sliding doors to the sidewalk and street. Yet this festive occasion had a very serious tone as there was a sense of a purpose in the air. This was the night of a book launch and people turned out.
The walls of the soundstage were hung with large photographs of young adults from the book titled “Aging Out.” Many of those actually in the photographs were standing and moving around the room. These twenty-somethings were foster youth who emancipated from the child welfare system in Los Angeles County, and many of them were there in attendance at the party. As I stopped to take in each photograph, I looked into the eyes of the subjects. That experience gave me a feeling that I was witnessing something very personal and private. It was unlike anything I’ve seen before. I worked my way through the crowd to speak with the eight photographers who created this book.
RICH VALENZA: Congratulations on the accomplishment of a powerfully moving book. Whose idea was it to create this project? What was your inspiration and why did you want to create it?
AARON FALLON: A few years ago, I saw a story about a photographer who was photographing young adults who were about to age out of the foster care system. I believe they were using the images and brief biography of the young adults to try and help to find them possible adoptive parents or some sort of guidance figures or really anyone who might be able to help them navigate the upcoming years.
RICH: Most likely that was part of a nationwide effort called The Heart Gallery.
AARON: Yes. Could have been. At the time I didn’t even know what Aging Out was, and so I did some research and something about it just resonated with me. I tried to see myself in the same situation as those young adults, about to be pushed out into the world on my own with no real support -- be it family or otherwise. And that idea of being on your own at such a young age was pretty scary. I decided then that I wanted to approach the challenge of foster care from a different perspective with a project here in Los Angeles. Only, it took me those years before I was able to make that happen.
RICH: How did you determine which former foster youth to feature in AGING OUT?
AARON: Joan Allen introduced Jacqui and I to the Alliance for Children’s Rights. The Alliance agreed to help us to find subjects and they reached out to lots of the youth they work with to see who was interested. So firstly, it was who would be interested in being a part of the project. Then, once we had that list we wanted to try and make sure we were covering a good cross section of young adults -- different backgrounds, education levels and current job/work situations. We reached out those youth and they agreed to be a part of it. Then it was up to each photographer and each writer to make sure they did their part.
RICH: What were some challenges you experienced in creating the project?
AARON: When putting together such a long-term project, it is a challenge to keep folks motivated. People tend to be onboard from the outset, but often, due to any number of factors, the photo shoot or the interview would get postponed and rescheduled again and again. As time passes, initial enthusiasm can wane. Also, some subjects that initially agreed to be a part of the project would also disappear and stop communicating with us before we had photographed or interviewed them, which also was a challenge in scheme of trying to finish the project. We had to have a pretty good size list of possible subjects to actually finish.
CORAL VON ZUMWALT: Finding subjects willing to participate in the project was certainly the first and largest hurdle we faced.
MEGAN MILLER: That took a lot more time that we anticipated. Th