Photos by Ryan Fairfield

“During my course with The School of the New York Times, I visited The New York Times Archives. We spent two hours exploring the cramped space filled with newspapers and magazines from decades ago. We searched the room with amusement on our faces and joy in our eyes. Nothing was more exciting to us than reading articles from years ago, finding family members in the files, and looking at old photos.”

Ryan Fairfield is 14 years old and a freshman at Lane Technical College Prep in Chicago, Illinois. This past summer, he attended The School of the New York Times and completed the journalism course “Writing in the Big City.” He is dedicated to both writing and photography.