Secret Lives of Children

This is the (kind of) final edit of the project I've been working on for so long. Most of these images you've likely seen before-- this is the story of the children of the Furlong families of Sturgeon, Missouri. I sit here in Seattle, far away from this project, missing the drives out to Sturgeon with the radio blasting and a huge glass of iced tea and lemonade (or, in the very cold, a big cup of coffee with cream and just a little sugar.) I miss being a fixture in someone's life, though a relatively benign one, as I faded into the background most of the time. I miss the permissions I had to just be inside of the lives of this family, just to take pictures.

In addition to all that missing, I long for the community of photojournalists at the University of Missouri, who taught me everything I know about pictures and stories and not being afraid to get close. It's such a cliché to go on about graduate school, but how can I forget that group of photographers (and some very brave writers and designers who would come out drinking with us)? Thanks to everyone for the late night edits and early morning drives to Macon and the couches to sleep on and even to the newsroom and the photographers I had the pleasure of working with this semester. I can’t wait to see what we do next.