By Brooke Bridges
Senior Rachel Bridges took inspiration from the Humans of New York project for her senior project. She called it: “Humans of Mashpee”. Around town, she interviewed strangers in order to to know about them on a more personal level.
Senior Rachel Bridges took inspiration from the Humans of New York project for her senior project. She called it: “Humans of Mashpee”. Around town, she interviewed strangers in order to to know about them on a more personal level.
Brandon Stanton started Humans of New York; he interviewed people on the streets of New York. He asked personal questions about struggles, achievements, or worries in life. Along with this little interview, he would take their picture to show New York’s population in a different aspect.
It became increasingly popular from his book release, and Stanton has traveled internationally, asking the same questions and taking photos of his interviewees.
In this collection of photos, residents of Mashpee are exposed on a deeper level, rather than what the typical person may know about them. Rachel said, “Just by talking to someone for 5 or so minutes, you get to learn so much.”
Rachel considered this project a “social challenge”, forcing her to go in public, and outside of her comfort zone. She said, “This project just means that even though things may be awkward, I have to get through them, and that sometimes it may not succeed, but otherwise things can work out very good and it’s a good experience.”
During the process she recalls, “A lot of the times I would push off going out to take pictures because I did not want to be awkward around people.” She would approach a person she did not know, inform them about what she was doing, then have a small conversation with them about their life. She said, “Eventually I had to finish my project so I faced my fear.”
This project is dear to her because she has always carried an interest in photography. When she found out about Humans of New York, Rachel became interested. She knew she wanted to involve photography in her senior project somehow, and thought that Humans of Mashpee would be both a challenging and interesting project.
At the Mashpee Public Library, she showcased her final project on April 28, 2016. It was held in the conference room. The pictures and captions were on easels, scattered around the room. Rachel reflected on the presentation, “I was happy to showcase my work because I really got some pretty interesting facts about these people.”