By now, the majority of us by now have come across the wonderful work that has been created by The Humans of Falmouth. A group of students working in a photo-documentary style to capture the very essence of our beautiful Falmouth town: its people! With a steadily growing social-media following, HC Falmouth were lucky enough to speak to the creative-minds behind the project.
1) So how long has this project been running now?
This project was started on the evening of the 7th of February and our first post, Neil’s story, went live on the Monday the 8th
2) Are any of you local to Falmouth? If so, what is it that you love about it as a place?
The people behind this project come from all over the UK and we’ve come to study in Falmouth, with both Exeter and Falmouth University. We all study a wide range of courses with none of us doing the same course. There’s five of us in total and we all love living in Falmouth, studying here and just the whole atmosphere.
3) Obviously this project is greatly inspired by the success of Humans of New York and you’ve had a great deal of success of your own, reaching 2000 likes in a few weeks! What makes this style of photo-documentaries appeal to you?
Actually, we managed to hit 2600 in under two weeks, which is literally incredible, we’re so close to 3000 now! Cartier- Bresson is a great inspiration to one of our photographers and he has greatly inspired their work, which is hopefully noticeable in the pictures posted on HoF. We just love capturing the raw essence of a person; their personality and character really shine through in a spontaneous picture. None of our pictures are photo-shopped or enhanced in any way.
4) In your own words, what would the aims and manifesto of Humans of Falmouth be?
We are doing this because we want to give everyone a voice and spread happiness through the medium of storytelling. In the modern world, it is very easy to be swept away and lose touch with people. We want to help reverse this, by displaying that everyone is interesting, as everyone has their own story!
5) You’ve photographed some real Falmouth icons, such as Gazi from the infamous Cod on the Corner, can you tell us a bit about your creative process?
For example, how you approach people, how you capture their personality and just generally what you are looking for from an interview?
A lot of people have inboxed us asking to have their story shared (if you’d like to have your story shared please email humansoffalmouth@gmail.com) or we just go up to people in the streets and tell them what we’re doing, why we’re doing it and ask whether they’d like to be part of it. Obviously some people say no, but the response it usually positive. With Gazi we just walked in, explained and he loved the idea and was thrilled to be part of it. With an interview we just look for any stories people would like to share, whether they’re long or short and sweet, we don’t mind, just as long as a story is told!
Thank-you so much for talking to us, HoF. It’s been great to find out more about this project and we can’t wait to see more of what you’ve been up to.
Humans of Falmouth are exhibiting work for FXU Feminist Society’s International Woman’s Week in the Compass, which is definitely worth a visit!
If you aren’t already a follower, check out their social media accounts:
Facebook: http://wwww.facebook.com/humansoffalmouth
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/humansoffalmouth/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/HumansofFal