Re-Humanizing the Landscape With Diversity

For the class of Thursday February 6th.

Here are some of my favorite works from those we saw in class today:

"There Is No Place Like Home" 2000 (4.39x20.42m) a public installation by Ken Lum.

Jin Me Yoon's "Group of Sixty Seven" of photographic installation from 1996.

 

A "Mask" work by Arthur Renwick.

To me, what all of these works have in common (and wonderfully so) is their focus on the human. In addition to speaking about home and belonging (or a lack thereof), they all put a spotlight on individuals by either re-inserting them into the empty landscapes of the Group of Seven and Emily Carr such as in "Group of Sixty Seven", or by saturating the frame in distorted faces such as in Arthur Renwick's "Mask" works.

Either way, this focus back onto the person makes me think of a local photographer's project that you might have heard of already: Humans of Sackville.

Indeed, what is a place without the familiar faces it houses, day in and day out? People make places, and then the places, in turn, shape people. Urban planner Jan Gehl understands it well, having slowly absorbed his psychologist wife's professional wisdom over his career's lifespan. People is where it's at, what it's all about, and Ian Chew, a photographer, Mount Allison University student and the founder of Humans of Sackville, has understood the message.

Run as a Facebook page and as a weekly column in the Sackville Tribune Post, Humans of Sackville is a branch in a much larger tree: There is also a Humans of Brazil, Humans of India, Humans of New York, Humans of Amsterdam... and the list goes on! With these, forget the fashion photography, super glam idealized humans. Although fashionable people will be found amongst the photographed, the "Humans of..." find beauty in all the humblest places, indiscriminate of age, skin tone, gender, and status. It doesn't get any better.

Despite being a small place, (perhaps even tiny,) Sackville is rich in interesting people who would give you the shirts off of their backs if you needed it. Yes, maybe even in January. Humans of Sackville is a great testament to that and to our community spirit, and a catalyst of the later as well. Humans of Sackville was lately acknowledged in Canadian Geographic magazine, and rightfully so! For all these reasons, I tip my hat to you.

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

                                              -Margaret Mead