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Overview
Athletes, painters, class presidents, and performing artists, the people in Adam Mastoon's compelling portraits recount experiences that are as diverse as their backgrounds. One man recounts his religious family's struggle to accept his gay identity. Another tells of the challenge to reconcile her bisexuality with her Asian-American heritage. Others recall the solace of long afternoons in the library devouring books that assured them that they were not alone. Together these candid accounts of navigating adolescence express the fundamental need we all share for acceptance and freedom of expression.Editorials
From Barnes & Noble
The Barnes & Noble ReviewAdam Mastoon's elegant, empathetic photographs have been exhibited nationally and appeared in such publications as Esquire, Spin and Forbes. And while every photographer's work will reveal something of his vision and sensibility in his subjects, Mastoon's work in THE SHARED HEART pulses with an immediacy that seems decidedly personal, intimate, and quietly urgent.
"Looking back, I cannot recall a single image or role model that mirrored my experience as a young gay man," he writes in his introduction to this groundbreaking collection of portraits of ethnically diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people (ages sixteen to twenty-two). "The disturbing fact is that suicide is the leading cause of death" among gay youth, a fact seldom really heard in the schools and, especially, the homes of those most at risk.
Mastoon's eloquent reply to the isolation, the appalling indifference, ignorance, and homophobia suffered by gay youth would probably be unimpeachable even in a far less accomplished book, as one of only a handful of such documents to come to light. That THE SHARED HEART rises above all expectation to become a truly enjoyable, emotionally intense reading experience lends a special dignity and grace to these quietly courageous, utterly human portraits.
A labor of careful, honest listening and observation, and of masterfully composed black-and-white portrait photography rich in tonality and detail (and a magic quality that really captures a subject in a moment of naturalness andlight), THE SHARED HEART doesn't tryto sell us rainbows. The forty individual portraits here — by turns funny, disturbing, playfully goofy, tough, brash, tender, astonishing — are presented in brief first-person narratives by the young subjects themselves, without editorial comment. Holographic reproductions caption the photographs, lending more intimacy and insight into each subject.
When Matt was fourteen, he says, his father was initially uncomfortable about his son's homosexuality. But he surprised Matt one day by introducing him to some gay friends. "It was a great experience to meet adults who could be positive role models for me," he says. Kerry, sixteen, has been lucky in finding sympathetic adults at her school ("My gay/straight alliance advisor never has a bad hair day"). If some young people found themselves uncomfortably identifying with the worst negative stereotypes of gays pop culture has to offer, Will, twenty, saw "flitty" types on TV and loved them.
For Chi, who is now twenty, "being gay is equal parts pain and joy. When my pain is most present, I remind myself again and again to expand my capacity to love myself and be loved by others."
Michael, twenty-two, reveals that "when I was nine years old my father called me a faggot for the first time." Shaka, who is from Jamaica, was told he would have to leave home if he was gay. Edual was also forced to leave his home when his mother confronted him in the family car one day and learned the truth about his sexuality. "My life as I knew it ended in that white station wagon on that sunny day in Patterson, New Jersey."
Salva, too, imparts some harsh truths absorbed in her young life. "Whoever said 'growing up is hard to do' was definitely watering things down. I've never questioned the suicide statistics. I've been there." "I realized I could die anytime," Adam, nineteen, says, "but I could only live once." And from Alton, seventeen: "Before I came out, I wasn't sure I would be able to grow up." Although these young people almost uniformly caution their peers to be careful about coming out, a process which most acknowledge will probably be lifelong, William, age twenty-two, says, "If I do not define my oppression and fight it, I have an aching feeling my oppression will not only define me but, if it has its way, destroy me."
Defining their lives on their own terms is a constant theme among all of the young people presented here. So is freedom. Their faces and especially their smiles have the power to crush lies. This extraordinarily affirming work should be in every school library.
Adam Mastoon's elegant, empathetic photographs have been exhibited nationally and appeared in such publications as Esquire, Spin and Forbes. And while every photographer's work will reveal something of his vision and sensibility in his subjects, Mastoon's work in THE SHARED HEART pulses with an immediacy that seems decidedly personal, intimate, and quietly urgent.
"Looking back, I cannot recall a single image or role model that mirrored my experience as a young gay man," he writes in his introduction to this groundbreaking collection of portraits of ethnically diverse lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered young people (ages sixteen to twenty-two). "The disturbing fact is that suicide is the leading cause of death" among gay youth, a fact seldom really heard in the schools and, especially, the homes of those most at risk.
Mastoon's eloquent reply to the isolation, the appalling indifference, ignorance, and homophobia suffered by gay youth would probably be unimpeachable even in a far less accomplished book, as one of only a handful of such documents to come to light. That THE SHARED HEART rises above all expectation to become a truly enjoyable, emotionally intense reading experience lends a special dignity and grace to these quietly courageous, utterly human portraits.
A labor of careful, honest listening and observation, and of masterfully composed black-and-white portrait photography rich in tonality and detail (and a magic quality that really captures a subject in a moment of naturalness and light), THE SHARED HEART doesn't try to sell us rainbows. The forty individual portraits here — by turns funny, disturbing, playfully goofy, tough, brash, tender, astonishing — are presented in brief first-person narratives by the young subjects themselves, without editorial comment. Holographic reproductions caption the photographs, lending more intimacy and insight into each subject.
When Matt was fourteen, he says, his father was initially uncomfortable about his son's homosexuality. But he surprised Matt one day by introducing him to some gay friends. "It was a great experience to meet adults who could be positive role models for me," he says. Kerry, sixteen, has been lucky in finding sympathetic adults at her school ("My gay/straight alliance advisor never has a bad hair day"). If some young people found themselves uncomfortably identifying with the worst negative stereotypes of gays pop culture has to offer, Will, twenty, saw "flitty" types on TV and loved them.
For Chi, who is now twenty, "being gay is equal parts pain and joy. When my pain is most present, I remind myself again and again to expand my capacity to love myself and be loved by others."
Michael, twenty-two, reveals that "when I was nine years old my father called me a faggot for the first time." Shaka, who is from Jamaica, was told he would have to leave home if he was gay. Edual was also forced to leave his home when his mother confronted him in the family car one day and learned the truth about his sexuality. "My life as I knew it ended in that white station wagon on that sunny day in Patterson, New Jersey."
Salva, too, imparts some harsh truths absorbed in her young life. "Whoever said 'growing up is hard to do' was definitely watering things down. I've never questioned the suicide statistics. I've been there." "I realized I could die anytime," Adam, nineteen, says, "but I could only live once." And from Alton, seventeen: "Before I came out, I wasn't sure I would be able to grow up." Although these young people almost uniformly caution their peers to be careful about coming out, a process which most acknowledge will probably be lifelong, William, age twenty-two, says, "If I do not define my oppression and fight it, I have an aching feeling my oppression will not only define me but, if it has its way, destroy me."
Defining their lives on their own terms is a constant theme among all of the young people presented here. So is freedom. Their faces and especially their smiles have the power to crush lies. This extraordinarily affirming work should be in every school library.
Brian Rieselman is the author of two novels, Where Darkness Sleeps and Dream Girl