A Joyous, Mysterious Portrait of Rural American Boyhood | The New Yorker

A Joyous, Mysterious Portrait of Rural American Boyhood

On a road trip across the United States, a Dutch photographer encountered an open, fragile-looking kid whom she was unable to erase from her mind.

via The New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/culture/photo-booth/a-joyous-mysterious-portrait-of-rural-american-boyhood

It was toward the end of an eight-thousand-mile road trip across America, in 2015, that the Dutch photographer Robin de Puy, riding her Harley-Davidson through the dry expanses of Ely, Nevada, discovered the subject destined to define her adventure: a skinny youth of fifteen, who flashed by, in the night, on a child’s bicycle. De Puy managed to stop him. Later, with wonder, she recalled the encounter in her diary: “Fragile-looking boy, striking face, big ears—a puppy, a golden retriever waiting for the ball to be thrown, (too) naive. ‘Can I photograph you?’ ” He consented, and posed for a picture, though de Puy neglected to mention that he was allowed to blink. Her model stared straight into the lens, unflinching, until tears dripped toward his lips.