“We sat in a circle on the grass and began talking about school, their favorite classes, what songs on the radio they liked, and their favorite activities. The girls showed me how they wove tiny multi-colored yarn bracelets, while the boys excitedly talked over one another, bragging about all of the cool bicycle tricks they could do.

For a moment, they were simply children.

Then something changed.

What first appeared to be innocent roughhousing revealed something far more troubling—a glimpse into the violence, neglect, and pain these children had already come to accept as normal. As I watched, I found myself asking a question that still haunts me today:

What happens to the children America forgets?”

This unedited field journal, originally written on location in 2012, documents a firsthand look into childhood poverty on the outskirts of Tampa, Florida, and the realities that exist just beyond Main Street, USA.

“Heavy photo editing has spiraled far beyond enhancement—we crossed a line into manufacturing a version of beauty that doesn’t exist. The real harm isn’t just in the image, but in the silent message it leaves behind: that who we are is not enough.”