John Huet: Lost and Found in Dorchester

Lealah Fulton, College Bound Dorchester Staff: “As a victim of gun violence I know how it feels to spend years being angry at your assailant and not understanding how or why this happened to you. The opportunity to be close to those who both perpetrated and are victims of this violence deepened my understanding. So as I sat in a courtroom with the men who had shot me and let go of that anger; that act of forgiving was my UNCORNERING." Photo © John Huet

Paul Burnsm Boston Uncornered student: “I spent five years in prison. Every day I pictured what it would be like to go home and who would be standing on the other side of those doors. The day I was released, the gang wasn’t waiting - only my brothers. That reality check UNCORNERED me.” Photo © John Huet

Luis Rodrigues, Boston Uncornered peer mentor: “Lying in the hospital after being shot 10 times and hearing my mother’s cries, I finally understood the impact of my decision on others, and in that moment I chose a different life and became UNCORNERED.” Photo © John Huet

Kismauri Pena, Boston Uncornered student: “One night this guy took me out to dinner…just dinner. He didn’t want anything in return – I didn’t have to give a piece of myself away. That small gesture showed me that I deserved more and I could be more. That moment UNCORNERED me.” Photo © John Huet

Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “Trauma is a barrier to learning - to individuals reaching their full potential. As a trauma victim myself, I ran for office partly because I wanted to save other victims of trauma – victims that didn’t even know they needed saving. It was through creating space for their voices that I became UNCORNERED.” Photo © John Huet

Alex Diaz, Boston Uncornered student: "“I didn’t care if I lived or died. I went to prison and missed the birth of my first-born daughter. When I got, out, I promised to never miss another day of her life. My daughter saved me from myself, my daughter UNCORNERED me.” Photo © John Huet

Photographer John Huet’s larger-than-life portraits of “Boston Uncornered” students, many of them former gang members, are the centerpiece of an outdoor exhibition at the Boston Common August 13-25. “Boston Uncornered” is a project of College Bound Dorchester (CBD), a non-profit dedicated to reducing violence on Boston streets by helping former or current gang members earn high school equivalency degrees, and then get into and graduate from college. “They become champions of positive changing…showing others a better way,” CBD says.

The outdoor exhibition, called the Uncornered Photo Documentary Project, will feature more than two dozen 5’ x 8’ portraits. Besides Boston Uncornered students, the portraits include CBD staff and Boston city leaders. Each portrait is accompanied by the a brief personal story, in the words of the sitter, about how they turned their life around—or became “uncornered,” in CBD parlance.

Huet shot the portraits as a pro-bono project starting in 2018. Huet says he hasn’t shot many portraits on a plain white backgrounds since he published Soul of the Game, his 1997 book about street basketball. “That had me thinking: Maybe I should try new things on a white background,” he says. For the Boston Uncornered portraits, the white backgrounds suggest the vulnerability of the sitters, while drawing the viewer’s attention to their individual characters and strengths.

The “Uncornered” exhibition was produced in partnership with Cambridge-based PJA Advertising + Marketing.