The People Project
In 2013, I started a photography project inspired by ‘Humans of New York’. At the time, I was diagnosed with depression, and didn’t have much motivation to do much. I just hid myself at home between classes and rarely went out. It wasn’t until the day that my parents retired, I went with them to film their last day at work, and carried my camera around capturing everything. When we got home, I went for a walk, camera in hand when I saw an elderly couple sitting down on a bench next to colorful staircases. The framing and lighting, everything just seemed right. I brought up the courage to ask to capture their photo. This was the first shot of “People Project SF”.
Using this experience, I began to carry my camera around everywhere I went. I was still taking classes in San Francisco’s financial district on a block of my art university’s campuses, so many people I ran to were just students in other departments. I began to ask them if I could take their photo, followed with a question to use as a caption. I was nervous in the beginning, but as time went on, I became more comfortable approaching strangers outside of the campus blocks. I started going all over the Bay Area, taking photos of strangers and having conversations with them. It got to a point where I got over my social anxiety and just began to have heartfelt conversations. The project didn’t matter anymore, the conversations did.
Some of the most powerful conversations were ones you’d expect, the ones where people shared about a death of a loved one, a time they were struggling in life, or someone that really hurt them. The power came with vulnerability, that they were sharing these deep moments with a complete stranger with a camera. Capturing these moments felt like a freeze in time, even when I go back to look at some of these photos to see where they are now, it really shakes my mind up that this was captured. The surprise comes with the growth of an individual.
Morning, afternoon, or night, I would go all over San Francisco by public transportation or my legs to capture a moment. Just somebody in their element, unaware that they were going to be my photo subject for the day. I got to meet people I never thought I’d ever talk to, but more importantly, I got to learn about them which ultimately made me learn more about myself. I learned that being genuine to yourself and others gets you so much further. When I took my time without worrying about the next person, I was able to learn and get more out of an individual, but when I wanted to steer the conversation to get more “likes”, I got a lot less. It was at that moment, I decided to stop the project.
As the views and likes grew, my interest dropped. There was now a social pressure to follow-up on capturing and posting photos every day, it no longer became the therapeutic element that it started off as. With two years and over 150 people captured and talked with, I stopped People Project. However, that experience became invaluable to how to approach people in the streets, especially the houseless community. This helped when I first moved to Oregon, and began working at a gym and then at Nike. There’s a lot of power behind empathy and listening.
What was once a therapeutic project that helped lift me from my depression and social anxieties, has now become part of my career of therapeutic conversations and interventions for others.
Life is good.
