Close-Up

Fifteen teenagers speak candidly about living separated from their families. and give moving self-portraits as they talk about their lives. These are intimate stories about trust and betrayal, friendship and grief, fear, resistance and courage. The young people represent all children who find themselves at the edges of society. Photographs by Pieter Kers underscore the poignancy of each story. "My mother couldn't take it anymore. When I was three, she dropped me at my father's. He said, ‘I'll take care of little Joey.' But he had no time. . . . I ended up in a children's home. That's when my parents lost me." I spent four years in that children's home. It sucked. I always played by myself. . . . When I was seven, I got foster parents. The administration said to me, ‘Here is a mother for you, and a father.' Well, I didn't even know what that was, a father and a mother."-- from the book