These Powerful Photos Depict The Reality Of A Generation Of 'Lost Boys'

After three years in New York City's Pratt Institute, photographer Liz Calvi realized she couldn't afford her final semesters.

Calvi was lucky enough that her parents let her move back in with them at home in Hartford, Connecticut, and attend a local art school to finish her education without having to pay the price of room and board. She soon realized she wasn't the only one back in town.

"I noticed quite a few kids had come back home," she remembers. "This group of boys stuck around the longest, which is how I got the idea for lost boys instead of both genders."

In her photo series "Lost Boys," the name of which was inspired by the use of "Peter Pan generation" to describe a generation that some believe refuses or postpones adulthood, Calvi mixes portraits of Hartford's 18 to 26-year-old "lost boys" with scenes from her hometown to illustrate the effects of a struggling economy on her peers.

Here, she has allowed us to republish an excerpt of her project. To see the complete series, visit her website.