Commie High
In the 1980s, I went to an “alternative” school in Ann Arbor, MI called Community High School. At that time, “Commie High” was kind of a school for misfits. Part of my “classroom without walls” curriculum was fine art photography courses taken at a local college. I shot a lot of tri-x film with a manual SLR camera that my dad had given me.
Recently, I wanted to make a book about my teen years for my son who was turning 13. When I went down to my basement and opened the sealed box that I’d been dragging around with me since 1987, I felt like I’d received a long-distance, time-traveling love letter from teenage me. In my memory, this was a somewhat dark time, but seeing these teenagers from my current vantage point, I can’t help but see that we were all quite innocent. It certainly gives me a different angle from which to view my own son’s teenage years, whereas my reason for digging them out was to give HIM perspective.
I hope you enjoy this time capsule of post-punk 80s teenagers who were just trying to figure out their world.
