returned to his home on the island of Nevis in the Caribbean, after his visa expired. Frustrated by the New York grind, he decided to take some time to recalibrate and recharge his creative energy by immersing himself in a new project: a series of portraits of schoolchildren, brought together in his new book,“My camera was my tool to build something,” Jeffers says.
When it came to the time for him to make these portraits, Jeffers sought out students who might not have the same advantages as those at the top of the class or those regarded as traditionally beautiful. Instead, he wanted to photograph the shy and the rambunctious alike, the students who might otherwise slip through the cracks and present them as individuals worthy of respect and regard in their own right.