We live in a world overflowing with stories. Everyone has one. And everyone is a part of hundreds of others, maybe even thousands. We are all interconnected through this web. And yet, many of these stories go untold. That is the mission with Portraits: to get on paper stories that would otherwise die over time. None of these portraits are intended to be political. Rather they strive to tell the truth, and to give a voice to people who have thus far either been silenced, dismissed, or forgotten.
It is hard to consolidate the beauty and the nightmare that rests in this world. We as people often look out into the horizon searching desperately for a way to make sense of it all. Is the world a good place or a bad place? Are people born good or evil? These are questions that we have all asked or been asked at some point in our lives. But we forget that we don’t need to answer them. And, having an answer, doesn’t affect the course of our lives. We don’t need to know if the world is a good place or a bad place, we just need to know that it is a place; a place where good things and bad things happen. We don’t need to know if people are innately good or bad, just that people do good and bad things. Only humans can do some of the monstrous things that you will read about; only humans can commit the unspeakable upon their neighbors and then laugh about it. But, in the same vein, only humans have the resilience and strength to recover. A mother’s desperate search for answers, a man’s fight for survival, and a father’s suicidal act just to save the lives of others. I encourage you to lean on the facts of these stories and not attempt to make sense of it all, because your only success would be losing your mind. All that you must do is listen. To these stories, to these people.
You give them their voice.