ABSTRACT
Mapping Myself was a 12-week, San Francisco based collaborative public art project between six Horace Mann middle-school students and artists John Jota Leaños, Mónica Praba Pilar, and Marisa Vitiello. With 35mm cameras, the students documented diff erent aspects of their lives to map their identity. Th e students photographed their family members, friends, natural and social environments, shelter and school environment. Th e multi-layered selfportraits consisted of the youths’ photographs and writings and paralleled the complexities of these disenfranchised lives. Th e 4 × 6 feet images were installed in public venues at various sites in San Francisco. Th e unexpected mappings attempted to rupture stereotypical ideas of who urban youth are and to lend these individuals the opportunity to be understood in their own terms.
