The book was first published in 2004 and included a forward by Gus Van Sant, who had just released the film Elephant in 2003, so it isn’t that surprising that he would bring up the 1999 Columbine High School shootings. He doesn’t focus on it however, in fact he only mentions it specifically in one sentence, several paragraphs into the forward, when he brings up a story about Elephant. Van Sant says that “the kids from Columbine were like the kids we filmed and like the kids Jona photographed.” This quote really gets to the heart of High School, which is that it may show very specific individuals, from very specific times and places, but at the same time they are stand-ins for any high school kid from any time or place.

Towards the back of the book Frank has all 58 images printed about the size of a yearbook photo, sectioned off into smaller groupings, and below them are the individuals first name, the state they are from and a short descriptor printed in a slightly larger font. She doesn’t say whether these labels were thought up by the individuals or if she came up with them based on her interviews, but they drive home the idea of the high school clique. Some of the groups are literal, like the “Vampire Bunny Trio,” or the four “Bored” students from Montana, but others have been created by Frank. This combination of assigned and chosen groups works extremely well for mirroring the high school dynamic, and plays into the the larger idea of the conflict between each person as an individual and as a representative of an archetype.

The last pages of High School consist of copies of pages from Frank’s working journal for the project. They include outtakes from her sessions and thoughts on high school, both by the artist and the subjects. These quotes take the reader deeper into the high school experience. It is interesting to read some of the correspondence between Frank and her subjects, some from the time of the shoot but other obviously from afterwards. Then there are the musings of the artist, which really take you into the process she went through.

These supplementary parts of the book add a great deal to the images, you find out intimate details about the subjects but you also see how similar each person is, even if they don’t realize it themselves. Not every subject is covered in the included pages from Frank’s journal, but they don’t suffer from it. They stand alone as beautiful, simple portraits of kids at a pivotal time in their lives. Even if you don’t take the time to read about them, each subject was comfortable enough with Frank that you can find out a lot about them from the way they stood and what personal items they may have had.

Overall I think that High School stands out as a lasting record of American life in high school. True some of the characters are dated by the way they dress and the proximity to the Columbine killings, but the roles that each student inhabits aren’t significantly different from those of students from another decade. As simple as they are these images are just as important as the coverage of a major catastrophe, largely because of how universal the events that these children went through are to every high schooler.

McKinley Technology High School is located at 151 T Street Northeast Washington, DC, overlooking the Capitol Dome and Washington Monument. If you ask Gideon Sanders, the Director of Partnerships and Internships, it is the “best view in the city.”  McKinley is a singular school in the District in that it is the only high school in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) path of the Catalyst Program.Prior to the 2010-2011 school year Mr. Sanders worked as a social studies teacher at McKinley. In his new roll he works with a conglomerate of corporations that provide support for the school. While monetary contributions are always encouraged, Mr. Sanders believes that the best way to ensure donors remain interested in the school is to get them physically involved with it.

To this end he and others in the school work to get representatives from the various businesses to come assist, or at least stay informed of what students are doing. This might be as simple as running a JROTC team to draw in corporations with military and defense ties to inviting employees at Microsoft to help with the construction of a robot for an Odyssey of the Mind style competition.

Though Mr. Sanders does not organize every outreach effort at McKinley he does try to keep abreast of what goes on. He also has plans for the future of McKinley but it is tough to say when itwill be viable to implement them. Due to the budget cutbacks in the DC school system the entire western wing of McKinley is currently vacant, as is the building next door that used to house a charter school that was closed. In the west wing all three floors have been stripped down to the concrete and are now inhabited by DC rats and excess supplies.

While Mr. Sanders remained quiet about what he would like the spaced used for he did hint at what he would want. It would be related to his position as corporate liaison, possibly as a space where students and the various business they interact with could work together with needing to leave the campus. All of this is speculation of course, and for the foreseeable future the funds simply aren’t available, even with the beneficence  of McKinley’s corporate partners.

After a friend posted this to their facebook I found out that one of the pictures I took at SuspenDC last fall is being used in their latest flyer for the spring event.