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They are runaways from broken homes with parents who don’t know what to do. Two American teens, caught in a tentative clasp, naked except for that bracelet, holding on to each other for dear life. They seem to exist outside of time; there is no yesterday, no tomorrow, only now and the pure comfort of this awkward moment that brings them together. Destiny and Napoleon have been wakened abruptly from nightmares of big homes and fast cars. Their new shelter, a squat under the Hollywood Freeway, is noisy and dangerous, and they live day by day in this underground warren teeming with kids and their exploiters. Destiny stares off into space, as the photographer’s flash cascades off Napoleon’s back, catching her bracelet brightly glinting like the mirror ball above the dancers at her senior prom. This fractured rainbow of light symbolizes her broken dreams; the bracelet represents memories of her past and her loss of innocence. She wanted to be a regular kid, but now her diamond-hard eyes give away the fear she tries to hide. As in a 1920s fashion photo, a kaleidoscope of light reflected from the bracelet holds the center of the picture, joining these two lost souls in a timeless embrace. . . .
:: Philip Brookman, Director of Curatorial Affairs Text excerpted from A Capital Collection: Masterworks from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, which is available for purchase in the Corcoran Shop. :: Click here to purchase this catalog online :: View more Photography and Media Arts
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