Second Adolescence

Second Adolescence is the first solo exhibition and book by Brighton based photographer Ben Gore. The project is an autobiographical photo-diary about fading youth and growing sideways.  

Being young is something precious. Each birthday that comes brings new challenges as our bodies change, our ideas evolve and our situations become greater. Our inner workings make us almost unrecognisable from when we were children. Your face looks different since I last saw you. The adolescence that transcends us from a child to becoming an adult, whatever that idea is meant to entail, leaves us in a position of doubt. Living life in a reckless way we are always pushing the boundaries of being young. Our bodies appear stretched. You are a cat with 9 lives. I now have 6. This second adolescence, something that brings together the notion of trodden ground formalises the people we become as we enter and leave our golden years. They are precious times for relationships, experiences, sexual encounters and generally soaking up everything life has to offer. We look in the mirror once more and realise that many years have passed but that's okay. In this youthful state of mind the experience seems to indefinitely last. There is no notion of growing old. You experiment and try, graze your knee like you once did when you were a child but the wound will always heal. This documentation of youth is commonplace within photography, but there is something poignant about the second adolescence. It is the fact we acknowledge and record that makes it interesting. I barely recognise the kid I once was and this second adolescence refines this adult personality. We never really know what we are doing. Your tastes change and you become a more refined person in parts. But you are still you. Our young bones yearn for experience until we need to slow down and this documentation is effortless. It is not drawn from pain like we might associate with Nan Goldin or Corrine Day, nor is it drawn from the mystical aspects of life. It is drawn from everyday moments that transcend the environment around us as we continue our development as people. These moments stay forever in time as photographs, documents of living to form a publication: Second Adolescence.