Conor Lyne is a senior at the University of Utah, pursuing a major in Finance and a minor in Political Science. For the past year, he has been preparing to undertake a major photography project. The project, entitled Wander Faces, was inspired by Conor’s “general interest in photography” and a feeling that the current attitude towards immigrants and refugees in the United States was “pretty dire.” An immigrant himself, Conor was inspired by his work with Salt Lake’s International Rescue Committee. Wander Faces will take over four months to complete, and will take Conor to 22 different countries in almost every region of the world.
HC Utah: Tell me exactly where your project will take you.
Conor: I will be gone 120 days. I will go to 22 countries during that time. I am starting in Eastern Europe, then heading to the Middle East before making my way to Northern Africa. I will be finishing up in Central America.
HC Utah: What led you to pursue this project?
Conor: I’ve always kind of had, like, a general interest in photography…but last year, I traveled to Jordan, and while I was there, I happened to take a photo of this boy, and just talking with his father and stuff like that, about how he wanted to go to America and go to university. That kind of got me thinking about how I could kind of document people through portrait photography.
HC Utah: Your work with the International Rescue Committee in Salt Lake shaped your decision to undertake this project. Can you talk a little bit about that?
Conor: [My work with the International Rescue Committee] has been amazing. This is the thing–people don’t understand that refugees don’t want to come here. They don’t want to leave their homes, but they have to for their children. Otherwise, they could be killed. This is why my family came here from Ireland–for the opportunity.
HC Utah: How did you fund this project?
Conor: I’ve been working part-time for the last year to kind of fund the trip. I drive for Uber and Lyft on the weekends. I’m not going with any grants or scholarships.
HC Utah: What are your plans for the future?
Conor: If this did take off, I have a few other projects in mind that I would like to pursue. This is something that I would have no problem doing full time.
HC Utah: What do you want your project to accomplish?
Conor: I want to educate people….these people from all over the world are the same as us. They have dreams, they have desires, and they have wishes…even though they might not be the same as
ours.
Conor will leave for his journey on May 5th, hours after his graduation from the University of Utah. You can follow his journey on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, or at his website, www.wanderfaces.com.