Veronica: age 28 / 38
Jerome: age 30 / 39
Since 2009, photographer Sam Comen has tracked his community through repeated annual portraits.
This photo and interview project is comprised of 400+ photos of more than 50 subjects photographed over the course of 11 years.
Since 2009, photographer Sam Comen has tracked his community through repeated annual portraits.
This photo and interview project is comprised of 400+ photos of more than 50 subjects photographed over the course of 11 years.
Steven: age 28 / 38
Erica: age 29 / 38
In the years farthest from birth and death, there's an unexpected paradox—a seeming physical stasis during a time of drastic internal growth.
With this work, Sam Comen offers a generation's insights into fateful decisions we all make In The Prime of life.
In the years farthest from birth and death, there's an unexpected paradox—a seeming physical stasis during a time of drastic internal growth.
With this work, Comen offers a generation's insights into fateful decisions we all make In The Prime of life.
Age 39
A viola virtuoso who has performed closely with Celine Dion for the past decade, Jerome finally feels comfortable in his own skin, and not limited to identity only as a gay, proudly married black man and first-generation Jamaican-American.
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A decade with:
Shay Astar
Age 28
Age 38
Musician, filmmaker, and one woman show whose outward radiance and inward gaze inform the art that guides her life, Shay shares wisdom about her own healing and simplifying, as well as the curiosity and joy of her young son.
Eleven years with:
Joe Zadeh
Age 28
Age 38
One of the first hires at Airbnb who stepped up for the company in an early moment of crisis and eventually was responsible for the launch of Airbnb Experiences, Joe finds his meaning in his wife and child—wanting them to know they are everything to him.
Eleven years with:
Carla Bleiden
Age 29
Age 38
Through tumultuous love and complex choices, Carla found forward motion in consciously being present for everyone she encounters, as well as in work leading HIV management programs and educating as an assistant professor of clinical pharmacy.
Eight years with:
Huy Doan
Age 31
Age 39
An understated man who loves people, food, bicycles, the outdoors, and his dog and a fellow photographer who counts Adidas, 686, and Oprah among his clients, Huy feels marriage and progression through his thirties has changed him deeply and for the better.
A decade with:
Veronica Sawyer
Age 28
Age 38
Veronica became an actor early in life and is now grateful for the responsive empathy it helped develop in her, as she nurtures her young daughter, creates, and, with her incredible memory and huge heart, remains an effervescent, truest friend to many.
Age 34
Erica is a comedy writer, producer, and mother of two, who with acclaimed series like ‘Fresh Off the Boat’ and ‘Never Have I Ever’ aims to break open Asian stereotypes in Hollywood, redefine narratives, and lift those who feel marginalized, with sincerity and laughter.
Eleven years with:
Steven Birenbaum
Age 30
Age 39
A deeply committed father of two and devoted friend, who has struggled with losing a parent and navigating marriage, Steven finds solace in his hands-on work as an environmental engineering technician on a decommissioned landfill.
ABOUT
IN THE PRIME
During our late twenties and throughout our thirties, we experience the prime of life. We try to figure out what we want and how to get there. We experience yearnings to do and to build, to create a family or career or both, to elevate our standard of living, to contribute, to find purpose or a path that makes sense to us. Our bodies and faces often appear ageless during that span, but inside we churn with life’s most consequential transformations.
This project tracks a community over eleven years through repeated annual sittings with each individual. More than 400 portraits document the subjects between age 28 and age 40 to examine this specific slice of lifespan when we face momentous, self-actualizing decisions—realizing the work and relationships that define us. The community’s contraction, expansion, and evolution is in focus too, as life’s arc progresses through the point furthest from both birth and death.
For this cohort of “Xennials,” primetime began in crisis with the Great Recession of 2008 and is coming to a challenging close with the COVID-19 pandemic, implacable dominance of social media, and the tumultuous 2020 Presidential election. Cultural shifts that have rocked these lives are matched only by the monumental changes within each of them.