Young Americans
British photographer Madeleine Morlet creates a significant series about young adults in rural Maine – a coming of age story as a personal journey between her subjects and herself as an artist.
Photography Madeleine Morlet
This project is a coming of age story, for both the subjects and myself as an artist. I have been photographing young adults in Maine since moving to America in 2017, during this time my approach has remained in a state of constant flux and discovery. Storytelling is at the centre of my practice, often turning towards other narrative mediums such as film or literature for inspiration. In its earlier stages of development this project appropriated theatrical production details such as props and costumes in order to construct fictionalised narratives around youth. Over the years my focus has gradually shifted, these portraits are now approached through a documentarian lens and, as much as it is possible in the photographic medium, they are grounded in reality.
Maine is as significant a character in these images as the subjects themselves. My relationship with both person and place is one of intimacy; here is my babysitter vaping in her car, my photography student resting in the classroom, the young man who works at the fish shop behind my house taking a break with his girlfriend. As in cinema, my approach considers how the sequence of frames might build and release tension, moving carefully between wide shot, cutaway, medium shot and close up. The device of a frame-within-a-frame contextualises both the ephemeral nature of youth and the role of photography as a marker for the passage of time.
The camera gave me an entry point as an outsider into this community, and it is a relationship that has changed the way I experience the world. I see adolescence as an archetype for our times, reflecting on the restless building of social bonds and a surprisingly concurrent feeling of total isolation. The photographer by default takes the role of narrator and I am interested in the restrictions set by a single frame or a single point of view, exploring the ways in which photography translates reality.
“This story is a document of young adulthood set to the specificities of rural Maine, it also uses photography to observe the broader experience of what it means to be a young American today.”
“Storytelling is at the centre of my practice, often turning towards other narrative mediums such as film or literature for inspiration.”
About Madeleine
Madeleine Morlet is a photographer from London, now based in Maine. She studied Classics and English at King's College London and worked in video production for almost a decade. Her work has shown nationally and internationally. It was awarded the Maine Arts Project Grant, 14th Pollux Award, Feature Shoot Emerging Photography Award, the Ellis-Beaugaurd Studio Residency, and the Lucie Foundation Photo Made Scholarship, honourable mentions for both the 14th Julia Margaret Cameron Award and the Don’t Take Pictures Prize for Contemporary Photography. She has been previously shortlisted for the Lucie Scholarship Chroma X Luxe, Belfast Photo Festival, and Felix Schoeller Photo Awards. Madeleine is the Features Editor for Teeth Magazine and teaches photography at Maine Media Workshops and the Penumbra Foundation.
To see more of her work, visit her website or follow her on Instagram
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