ordinary people (like me)

Ordinary People (Like Me) is a social experiment conducted through photographic portraiture. Initially inspired by a Yoko Ono instruction to photograph “ordinary people” I expanded the project and approached the prompt by interrogating its premise. Who do we consider “ordinary”? How is “ordinary” defined? The instruction summoned an uncomfortable awareness that the act of identifying and photographing “ordinary” people would presuppose scrutiny, judgment, categorization, and privilege.

Instead of making those judgements myself, I chose to work collaboratively. I began by photographing a handful of people I’ve met through daily dog walks, and I asked if they would recruit one or two other “ordinary” people for the project. This process spawned multiple distinct lineages of portrait subjects. I followed the referrals wherever they led me, excited to meet the next generation of “ordinary” Calgarians.

I photographed people at their homes, environments that speak to the values and experiences that play a role in shaping our lives. I worked with my subjects to identify places to shoot that would best represent who they are and how they live, whom and what they love. 

The paths the referrals traced repeatedly led back to people like me. My method failed to yield the diverse representation of “ordinary” people I had hoped would naturally materialize. Instead of branching out, the resultant series of images map existing social networks and the boundaries of everyday lived communities. The work achieves its ends by posing questions about self-concepts and identities, and the labels that simultaneously unite us and keep us apart.