Two androgynous figures in matching gold-sequined outfits pose in pews, in either a church or a funeral home; they'd be pasty if they weren't already painted white. Another pair, Sophie, 15, and Johnny, 21, from Tacoma, Washington, relax at home in their underwear -- they have a close, albeit ambiguous, relationship, and she drinks a Pabst Blue Ribbon. In Danielle Levitt's photographic portraits, collected in the forthcoming We Are Experienced (powerHouse), the acne-afflicted loner may be a freak, but he's also an American brand, a highly sophisticated one, and an ambivalent creator and consumer of his image. Levitt's pictures here are composed with dynamic, intimate narratives in mind. She and a team of researchers use social networking tools to locate subjects: "Anyone who is super jazzed online, we'll send them messages."
One Facebook search, for "homecoming," returned the 13 bedazzled members of the Wheatley High School cheerleading team. Levitt enthusiastically pictures an America in which "subcultures have been diluted," as she explains. "From a big-city perspective, these subcultures are not underground, and they're not sub- in the way that cultures have been traditionally presented." Instead, mainstream and alternative kids come together around American conventions like the prom or the local swimming pool. "Each one is an archetype, but ultimately each one breaks down," says Levitt. 40 years after Jimi Hendrix asked "Are You Experienced?" Levitt's photographs of American youth assert a dynamic, sophisticated and subtle reply.
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