The Secret Life of Children
Amanda Lucier
In the town of Sturgeon, Missouri the youngest four children of the Furlong families are in a world of their own. Their parents are largely absent, and the children spend their time at their discretion, with the freedom that the relative safety of their town, with under a thousand residents, and their rural surroundings allow. Though much of their life is charged with frenetic energy, there are many moments marked by quiet, when they seem removed from the chaos of their lives, and they inhabit their own interior worlds.
This story comes out of a search for a photo column I was working on in Missouri, and has turned into something I want to return to again and again. For most of my daily work, I shoot stories that follow a narrative, or touch on a series of points that need to made about the subject’s life. This project doesn’t feel like that; it’s not a linear
progression. While I was working on it I relished the chance to shoot and gradually try and make sense of the story, rather than shoot a series of images to fill in holes in a pre-existing structure. As I started working on it, Brenda Ann Keneally came to Missouri for POYi, and over dinner we had a brief talk about how you know what the ’story’ of your story is. She encouraged me to embrace the uncertainty and just to keep shooting, and I did and still do. It should be said too that I fell in love with this family, and my heart rises and falls with their achievements and disappointments. They just moved into their grandfather’s farmhouse, and I can’t wait to make the trip to Missouri and see what their lives are like now.
Amanda Lucier graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Reed College with a degree in Political Science and is finishing her Master’s degree in Photojournalism at the University of Missouri. Currently an intern at The Herald in Jasper, Ind., Amanda was Indiana News Photographer of the Year, won First Place Portrait in POYi, was Runner-Up 2008 College Photographer of the Year, and won an assignment at the Eddie Adams Workshop in October. Her Master’s Project, a five-part series of stories related to the 2008 presidential election won First Place in POYi for Newspaper Special Series, and Indiana News Photographers Association’s John Ahlhauser Award and Community Awareness Award. She is headed to the Dallas Morning News for an internship this summer. She loves local stories, long drives, feature hunts, the 4-H Fair and community journalism.
The last frame is gorgeous and the caption is eye opening.
Have you contacted the St. Louis Post Dispatch with the idea of a Sunday section on the family? do you know if their move is the result of our economy crash? That would give it a current hook.
Also – international media is interested in how Americans are dealing with the economy, which is front page there. I love PARIS MATCH but there’s STERN in Germany and others. Capitalize on your “middle America” location to build contacts and business with publications in the EU and Japan (check out the two big newspapers, Asahi Shinbun and Yomiuri Shinbun to start.
It’s a crappy time to be seeking a full time job, but not bad for seeking freelance work, if you’re creative. Anyone can make chicken salad if you’ve got a chicken – this is the time we must do it with chicken droppings. And many people are!
Good luck!