Habib, a 1987 LS&A graduate who got his start in photojournalism at the Michigan Daily, has not found any simple answers. But time and time again, he has found teens who are struggling to make sense of the complex web of cultural factors that often seem to tell them everyone else is having sex, but amid a society that cannot even seem to agree whether the word should be uttered in the classroom, not to mention at the kitchen table.

Habib is preparing to take his project, "Love and Death Decisions: Teen Sexuality in the Age of AIDS" a multimedia documentation of nine young people, to schools and community centers across the nation in June 1995. After each multimedia presentation profiling teens from all points of the sexual spectrum, a panel of teens, parents, educators, scholars and health workers will break the silence that often surrounds the subject. The New Hampshire Humanities Council is assisting him with an $11,000 grant.

[Editor's note: Habib's photos were subsequently incorporated in the Web site "Teen Sexuality in a Culture of Confusion."]

"I'm trying to create a balanced, honest look at the forces that impact when and how teens act on their sexuality," says Habib, who has provided both the pictures and text for his project. "Teen sexuality by itself is not a problem. Teens are sexual beings, like all of us. But teen sexuality can become a problem when it collides with other forces like pop culture, drugs and alcohol, low self-esteem, poverty and sexual abuse."

Habib first developed an-interest in the subject after documenting for the Concord Monitor the life of Bill Newman, a gay man with AIDS. Just before his death in 1991, Newman told Habib that it was not homosexuals who would be at the future epicenter of AIDS, but those teenagers who had chosen to be sexually active but had not learned the lessons of safe sex. Newman's warning stirred Habib to attempt to "elevate the debate about teen sexuality beyond simply saying, "'Just say no' or 'Here's a condom.'"

Habib soon began an 18-month documentation of the lives of ninth-grade students in a Concord health class; in 1993, his four-part series, "Sex Education, Teen Realities" appeared in the Monitor. The series generated more letters to the editor than any peacetime event in its history. It showed images of teens at school dances and parties, nothing unfamiliar to most parent chaperones.

But what really became the lightning rod of debate was Habib's portrayal, through words and images, of what happened within the walls of teacher Tom Walton's Health/Related Fitness classroom in Rundlett Junior High School. It's not a typical health class, with a teacher explaining in scientific terms the functions of different parts of the male and female body. Walton encourages teens to talk, ask questions and write about their health concerns, from eating disorders and depression to substance abuse and sexually transmitted diseases. He believes that information demystifies the subject of sex, making it less probable that teens will "do it" to satisfy their curiosity or rebel against taboos or succumb to peer pressure to do something they don't want to do.

Habib sat in Walton's classes with a tape recorder for a full year after receiving permission from the parents of each student. Habib found the teens he observed deeply influenced by the world around them and yearning to talk about their thoughts about sex. In film and text, he presented in the Monitor the teens' story in their own terms.

Gabe, a 15-year-old, said AIDS didn't worry him as much as pregnancy did. He said it was "pretty crazy" to ask teenagers to be abstinent "because most teenagers, with all they hear in music, TV and movies, they're not gonna wait to have sex until they are married."

Like many in her peer group, Jamie said the pressure to have sex began as early as age 10, a statement that incensed many Monitor readers. "Having sex did take the pressure off," she said "A lot of people make fun of you if you are a virgin."

The teens who are most likely to become sexually active in an attempt to enhance their self-image are those with the lowest self-esteem, Walton and other educators have found. But their decision is also often influenced by alcohol, and made far away from supportive family members or other influential persons.

Habib's portrayal of teen life startled many adults in the community. The morning after Habib's first stories about the Concord class appeared, Walton recalls that few, if any, teachers commended him. "It was like someone had died" Walton recalls. "It was the talk of the town, and no one in the school even mentioned it to me."

For Habib, who at the age of 29 has won awards for his photos of subjects ranging from presidential campaigns to documentaries of Jamaican migrant workers, the struggles of single fathers, and the life of teenagers in China, this remains his most important work yet.

"Teen sexuality is extremely complex," says Habib, who has left the Monitor to freelance, "but much of American society continues to prescribe simplistic solutions.

[Editor's note: "In August of 1995, Habib returned to the Monitor as photo editor."]

Rebecca Blumenstein '89 is a reporter for Newsday in Long Island, New York. She says of her days as editor-in-chief of the Michigan Daily, 'I doubt I'll ever have to work as hard again.'

Dan Habid '87 has published his photos in Life, Newsweek, The New York Times, People, Fortune and Esquire. He and writer Blumenstein were colleagues on The Michigan Daily. He can be e-mailed at: dhabib@cmonitor.com.