FLINT, MI – MAY 21: Antonio Nelson, 18, looks inside his friend’s car on the way to his high school prom on Saturday, May 21, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. (Photo by Landon Nordeman)
FLINT, MI – MAY 21: A student’s shoes and socks match his ride on the way to the Northwestern High School Prom on Saturday, May 21, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. (Photo by Landon Nordeman)
Flint, Michigan, first made headlines in 2014 when state officials changed water sources and failed to apply corrosion inhibitors, creating a public health crisis that continues to this very day. With 10 people dead, and some 12,000 children exposed to lead-infested drinking water, the predominantly African-American city has been forced to drink, cook, clean, and bathe with bottled or filtered water for the past four years.
.
Despite these horrific circumstances, the people of Flint endure – and even thrive. In 2016, Zack Canepari invited New York-based photographer Landon Nordeman to spend 24 hours in Flint, documenting the annual Northwestern High School prom as part of Canepari’s larger project Flint is a Place.
.
“Zack had been to one the previous year and reached out to me,” Nordeman explains. Nordeman, who shoots for The New Yorker, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and The New York Times Magazine, was invited to photograph the scene for a body of work titled Prom in Flint that captures the senior class celebrating in their flyest finery and enjoying a classic American rite of passage.
.
Read the Full Story at Huck Online
.
FLINT, MI – MAY 21: Unidentified students dance during their high school prom on Saturday, May 21, 2016 in Flint, Michigan. (Photo by Landon Nordeman)