Bowman, Robin. It's Complicated: The American Teenager. New york: Umbrage Editions Book, 2007.
Annotation: The truth and voice of various teens all over America is captured within these brief interviews and raw photographs.
Justification for Nomination: While the book may seem like your average coffee table book filled with artistic black and white photos and brief answers to the authors questions, it acts as so much more. Photographer and interviewer Robin Bowman includes a two page "artist statement" explaining the depths in which this creative book took form. Driving across country, she approached various teens within their comfort zones and took on the task of asking a number of raw and honest questions involving drug abuse, sexuality, political views, dreams and so much more.
The real beauty of this book lies in the honest and sometimes hard to read answers. She covers every type of American teen, gender, orientation, race and disabled teen imaginable putting together a unique finished product . She also explains in her "statement" the artistic expression she wanted to express by capturing the modern teens voice. Bowman, had no agenda and didn't try pushing buttons. All proofs were finalized by the teens themselves and the quotes were taking directly from a recording she had with each teen revealing intimate details from each persons life.
My first reaction was that this was a photography book of unique teenagers and their wild stories, but as you read on you begin to feel sympathy and see these pictures as the human beings they are. Not only does this book have real personality that teens can identify with, but also shows the opinions of numerous peers. Again, it doesn't hold an agenda and the interviewees indistinctly react to touchy topics. A major theme I pulled from each entry is the age old topic of "don't judge a book by its cover." We see so many different faces and while some seem to play into particular stereotypes one may have, most of them might surprise you.
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