MY YOUTH

Words and Images by Akintola Hanif

I enjoy photographing young people because they’re a lot less guarded, more fluid. There’s no posing or reoccurring stance with kids, like there is with adults. For the most part, a man wants to take a manly picture and a woman wants to take a pretty or sexy picture but kids don't care.

I appreciate their lack of pretension, that they aren’t yet completely tainted by people’s expectations. I also see an ingeniousness that comes from a lack of certain vices that adults have -- money, cars, clothes, etc -- that allows them to just do their own thing.

Although some of the kids in my photos look more like teenagers because of their posturing, what I see is the opposite of that—vulnerable children.

Even though my time with these children has been brief, I feel for them like they're my own. But it’s not enough to feel for them. We have to nurture their gifts, help them explore their infinite potential. Don’t let everyday life take your focus off our children. We must do everything we can to educate, love and shield them from the things we dislike most about the world.

I know it’s inevitable that they’ll grow up and become more rigid and self-conscious, like us. I can’t help believing that losing our inner child is what damages us the most. Young people don’t have long to be kids anymore before the world treats them like adults. It’s our job to guard the purity within them for as long as we can.