teenage folks

A lot of photographers say that they "document their life", but it often fails to give a real impression to the viewer. However, you manage to make the person who watches your pictures feel that he knows your life. How do you achieve this ? Do you always carry a camera with you ?
Well thank you! I suppose it's because I do carry a camera everywhere, and I mean everywhere. There is rarely a time that I leave the house without my camera. I also never make anyone pose for a picture. I don't like doing that. For me, the best photographs are the ones taken when someone didn't know they were having their picture taken; it's more natural that way.

In France, teenagers are under a lot of pressure because the unemployment is really high. Is it like that in the USA ? Do you feel stressed out about the future ?
It is like that in the USA. The unemployment rate is rising drastically and it's terrifying, especially for those of us who will be entering the professional work force in years soon to come. I'm definitely stressed out about it, probably more than I should be. Ha. But as an artist, it is much harder to make a solid living then it is for say, an accountant or even a journalist, and in hard times like these, it will become even harder. However, I am currently in school and working at a nice cafe as well as performing, and that's just enough for me right now.

If you had to shoot a portrait of a model or an actor, who would you choose ?
This is a hard question for me because it's impossible for me to remember the names of actors or anything of that sort. But I would really enjoy taking a portrait of Emile Hirsch. He seems as if he would be interesting to go and photograph.

What kind of lifestyle would like to have in a few years ? Is money important to you ? Do you want to travel ? Or, on the contrary, would you prefer to settle somewhere to study, or to work ?
In an idealistic world, I would like to be traveling around Spain and Iceland, or even simply road tripping across America. Or living in some nice, small town on a river, with nice people. Maybe own an antique/book store of sorts. Maybe teaching photography. There are so many things that I want to do. We will just see how it all turns out.
I feel that money is important to everyone in the sense that we all need it to survive. So yes, money is important to me. I need money to live any of the lives that I hope to be living in a few years.

What is the strangest thing that happened to you last summer ?
Ha! Strange... Well my friends and I tend to go and do rather strange things. One of the most enjoyable things we did this summer was head down to the cemetery. We brought blankets and a huge cake and musical instruments. There was a nice flat rock towards the top of the cemetery and we sat down there to have a picnic. The weather was great and we made beautiful music.

Jocelyn Catterson on flickr