This photo appears on the ‘Humans of Morgantown’ Twitter page with the quote, ‘We just finished serving the homeless.’
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Some of you may have heard about the Humans of New York photography project. The project is basically a blog full of pictures by Brandon Stanton, who takes pictures of people he finds roaming in New York and puts a quote with their picture on his website.
A student at West Virginia University decided to do the same kind of project in Morgantown. Julie Winegard, a senior art and design student, created Humans of Morgantown as a class assignment.
“It all started with a photography class project to emanate a famous photographer,” Winegard said. “I had recently discovered Humans of New York, and immediately, I knew that was exactly what I wanted to do.”
Over the course of a month, Winegard took pictures and captured quotes for the project. Then, she decided to make it more than just a school project.
“I then started posting the pictures to Twitter under the Humans of Morgantown account and decided to keep expanding the project,” she said.
Winegard said she tries to take pictures of local people as well as WVU students.
“I have photographed a lot of my friends, but I also try to get strangers any chance I get,” Winegard said. “On the weekends, I walk downtown with my camera and ask people on the streets if they would mind me taking their photo.”
Part of the task, aside from taking the picture, is getting quotes from the people she photographs. Winegard said she goes about this a couple of ways.
“I ask whatever question comes to mind when I see that person,” Winegard said. “Most of the time, it’s not their answer that becomes the quote but a portion of the conversation that follows…”
