What is Bokeh Focus?


Bokeh comes from the Japanese word boke (ボケ), which means “blur.”

A great photographer can make even a blur pleasing to the eye. In photography, bokeh is the aesthetic quality of the blur particularly pertaining to the unfocused background.

Bokeh Focus: Our Website

Our website, Bokeh Focus, was created and is published by the nonprofit Center for Sustainable Journalism (The Center) to bring attention to those individuals — specifically youth —  in the blurred background of our culture. 

Teen Hangout Baton Rouge: Girls laughing while sitting on the front porch cement steps with graffiti on the walls behind them at the old abandoned while house.
Teen girls Williams and Brown go to the white house nearly every day.
From our gallery: “Baton Rouge: That White House On the Corner”
Photo: Clarissa Sosin

Youth Photos, Youth Focus: We are a platform for professional, amateur, and youth photographers to showcase photography of youth and the world through the eyes of youth from around the world.

On Bokeh Focus, you will find the work of professional photographers, young photographers and artists that express the way they see the world and the issues that take priority in their lives. All these beautiful images are produced by individuals who actively explore their creativity with a passion.

Youth and youth’s perspective — with the artistic expression left to the photographer’s imagination —  is the common thread in the galleries and stories of the up-and-coming photojournalists, young photographers and artists we feature on Bokeh Focus. We encourage these talented, hardworking people to collaborate with each other and support each other in their creative endeavors. 

@Bokeh_Focus: Our Instagram

Many of the galleries and stories you see here are also posted on our Instagram @Bokeh_Focus. Be sure to check out all our Instagram posts and follow us! If you have pix you want us to see, tag them with @Bokeh_Focus (remember the underscore!)

ACP'18: Greece Cory Hancock taking a selfie using the reflection of the device used to locate ships carrying refugees coming to Greece.
Bokeh Focus 2018 Exhibit photographer Cory Hancock in Greece taking a selfie of his reflection on the lens of the locator device used to find ships carrying refugees coming to Greece.

Share Your Work on Bokeh Focus

Do you think your photo essay, photograph, or art is what we are looking for at Bokeh Focus? Tag your pix on Instagram with @Bokeh_Focus (remember the underscore!) or submit photos using this email form.

We review the photos, then reach out to photographers we want to feature in our website and virtual 3D galleries, interviews, Instagram stories and posts, and on other social media platforms.


Explore Our Affiliated Websites Published by the Center for Sustainable Journalism

The Center, at Kennesaw State University in metropolitan Atlanta, produces journalism that increases civic engagement, holds public officials accountable, strengthens democracy and advances the field of journalism education. 

Our three affiliated publications are Youth Today, the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange and Fresh Take Georgia. These sites publish stories that cover many different topic areas. Both Youth Today and JJIE have extensive resource hubs that include free downloads. You can stay up-to-date on new stories by signing up for each site’s free newsletters or new story notifications. In our Bokeh Focus Stories and Galleries sections, we republish photojournalism selections from our affiliated sites we know will be of interest to our readers.

Youth Today name with white logo on lime green

Youth Today is a national, nonprofit, independent news source for people who care about and work with children and youth.

For more than 35 years Youth Today has published in-depth reporting on issues affecting youth including foster care and child welfare, juvenile justice, youth with disabilities, education, out-of-school time, youth development and more.

The Center acquired Youth Today in 2012. It was previously published by the American Youth Work Center, a Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit. 

JJIE.org white text on red square

The Juvenile Justice Information Exchange (JJIE) is a nonprofit, independent news source for people who care about children and the law. JJIE publishes in-depth reporting on the U.S. juvenile justice system and its far-reaching impact on children and youth.

In the past, traditional journalism organizations filled this function. Today, due to shrinking resources, there are large gaps in that coverage. JJIE fills that void.

FRESH TAKE Georgia is a new digital news service offering Georgia news from a fresh perspective focusing on Georgia’s state government, including the legislature and other issues of statewide, regional or national interest.

We aim to bridge the gap in local journalism by providing in-depth, fact-based, fair and balanced investigative journalism to Atlanta and Georgia’s local communities by listening, digging and reporting the topics that matter most to Georgians.