For Melissa Ann Pinney, there’s always been something special about photographing children. “Kids are just more open than adults,” she says. “They’re freer. They play more. They’re in the process of becoming — nothing is hardened or set in stone yet.”

The Evanston photographer, whose work has been displayed at the Art Institute, the Museum of Modern Art, and other major venues, has spent the past six years embedded in Chicago public schools. She started at an elementary and a middle school but in recent years shifted to high schools. From 2019 to 2022, she photographed students at Ogden International in West Town, and she’s been at Nicholas Senn in Edgewater since 2021.

Pinney ended up documenting an extraordinary period for the schools. Her residency coincided with the pandemic, a resurgence of social justice activism, and a teachers’ strike. “All of these things really affected the kids,” Pinney says. “It gave me a whole different perspective on things like that.”

The upheaval wasn’t the only thing that surprised her. “The pictures were important to me as artwork, and as I got to know the kids, they were important because I cared about the kids. Something that hadn’t occurred to me at the beginning of this was that the pictures would be important to the kids.”

Pinney’s images — many of which appear in her book In Their Own Light: Photographs From Chicago Public Schools, published last year by Skylark Editions — offer a unique, personal look at the city’s youth: their joy, their pain, and everything in between. Here, she describes 12 of the photographs she took at Ogden and Senn.

Arrie Jones and Malachi Holloway (Ogden) “They are good friends, and I have lots of pictures of them together. In 2023, I wasn’t photographing at Ogden anymore, but I had this relationship with Arrie and Malachi. I met them before they went into their prom. Malachi really liked his suit and shirt. He looks cool. He looks happy.”

Kate Richardson and Sinead Lyons (Senn) “This was outside the gym at a spring dance or winter ball. I photographed them together at dances a bunch of times. You can just see the closeness and fun of their friendship. They’ve known each other since sixth grade.”

DeJa Rae ReAves (Ogden) “This was at graduation in 2022. I knew DeJa from an art class — I did workshops with students — and had photographed her before. She went on to North Carolina A&T and was shot and killed there, near campus, in April of her freshman year. Her friend contacted me and told me. I went to the funeral — there were hundreds of people there. She was a good artist. She was a singer. She was a talented, smart kid. Tragically, DeJa is one of eight students I photographed who have been killed.”

Sofiat Agboola (Senn) “I gave her a copy of this picture and asked her what she thought of it. She said it was really inspiring. And I said, ‘Inspiring to you? Or to whom?’ And she said that sometimes when she wears her natural hair, people make fun of her. This gave her confidence to wear her natural hair.”

Lizzie Williams (Senn) “How can you not photograph Lizzie? She’s an artist — she’s so creative. Breaking Bad is her favorite show, but she does all these animations with My Little Pony. That’s a My Little Pony backpack. So there’s something very girlish and young and really dark.”

Danny Pink (Senn) “Senn was playing at Amundsen. This was during the game. I just loved his look and the kind of war paint — also, of course, his two-toned hair. Danny and I talked quite a bit, and he told me he’d been a foster kid. Being on the team was really important to him.”

Hireath Magee (Ogden) “Lizzie [above] asked me if I would go to Chinatown and take pictures. And I said OK, sure. And while we were there, Hireath, a kid from Ogden that I hadn’t seen in two years, walked by and recognized me. That kind of blew my mind. I ended up photographing them, too.”

Sal Vega and Gunnar Smith (Senn) “Gunnar is in a heavy metal band — he’s the drummer. Sal is an artist. I found out they were friends, and I asked to do a portrait of them together. Sal showed up like this — I had never seen her with orange hair. I was thrilled. I sent them the pictures, and Sal’s mother contacted me and thanked me and said, ‘You really got their personalities.’ ”

Kho’vya Greenwood (Ogden) “I met her on the first day I went to Ogden. She told me later they thought I was a spy. I walked into the bathroom and saw her — she was getting ready for a volleyball game. She said to me later: ‘It was so great you were there photographing these ordinary moments.’ ”

Jamonte Jones and Antonio Epps (Senn) “They’ve been friends since sixth grade. They’re both in a mentoring program called Becoming a Man — that’s the T-shirt. Football and BAM have drawn them closer. I photograph all the sports, but I’m not a sports photographer. It’s not really what I’m interested in. The whole thing of the twinning and the way they make one body, the way they’re connected and their fists are connected — that’s interesting to me.”

William Molina (Senn) “William was a really popular student. He would dance at the pep rallies. He was prom king. I did an event with Dawn Turner, who wrote Three Girls From Bronzeville, for my fellowship. We invited William to be on the stage to be interviewed along with me. He told Dawn being in my project made him feel seen, as it did other Hispanic or Latinx kids in the school who felt marginalized. It was a very positive thing to hear.”