Mark Steinmetz’s latest monograph published by Nazraeli, Summer Camp is entirely dedicated to the theme of adolescence. Following the boys who spend part of the summer in ‘summer camps’, the photographer manages to magically bring us back the feelings and thoughts that we all felt during those painful and crucial years.
There is a kind of serious maturity that develops in people around the age of 11, which is the maturity of adults in children’s bodies, the maturity that hides behind still unripe physiques but explodes in some of the looks of when teenagers laugh or cry. It is precisely this that Mark manages to capture, in an almost heartbreaking way, in his photographs: the struggle to make space for oneself in the world and the pain, excruciating still wonderful, that growing up brings with it.
