RRESTED ON DRUG charges, a despondent figure sits quietly in his cell dreaming of a brighter future. This is not a scene from one of Joe Rodriguez's photographs - it is a scene from his life.
THE YEAR IS 1968. The place, New York's notorious Rikers
Island. Rodriguez remembers those days vividly: "I just did
not think I could handle being there, I was contemplating
committing suicide - jumping off the tier, and then they called
my name... I was going home." |
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RODRIGUEZ ESCAPED the cycle when he took up photography. Now he is documenting the experience of being processed through the juvenile justice system, and taking his project on the road to schools around the country.
HE PAINTS A STARK picture of individual struggles that
he hopes his younger audience can avoid. "Those experiences
-- they have been with me every day of my life." |
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