The Project
Everyone has an opinion. About their life, your life and their neighbor’s sister’s cousin’s dog’s life. We casually and sometimes passionately talk about politics, moral issues, parenting issues, and anything else that stumbles into our conversational path.
What concerns me is that while we all have an opinion; we rarely have the knowledge to go with it. We want to change policy and rules for all sorts of groups of people and rarely do we really know about the people those laws/rules/policies will affect. We may think we know them, but in all reality, usually what we think is based on a stereotype we’ve been handed over the course of our lifetime.
It is my desire to give faces to the people we so casually speak of. To show that for each group of people we wish to hypothesize on, there are a variety of people really living that life. In my own life I run into this when discussing Birthmotherhood, Rape Survival, even the military. I hope to show that these are REAL people; they are all individuals and they each may surprise you in that they don’t fit that stereotype you always thought they did.
My desire is twofold. As well as showing the world outside of the issues who they are speaking of, I hope to show those IN the issue that they are not alone. Most people feel alone at some point in their life, usually when enduring some hardship. They can feel that there is no one else out there who understands. If they could open a book and see a picture of someone that looks like them, or read the story of someone that sounds a lot like theirs, they will know they are not alone. Likewise, we can see how many different ways people get to and deal with whatever situation and trial life has handed them. Knowing there are options, and real people who have done all of them can open a whole world of encouragement and choice for anyone facing any of a host of issues.
My heart lies in Adoption and my first series will be The Face of Adoption – likely in three parts: The Birthmother (Face of Relinquishment), the Adoptee, and the Adoptive Parent. Talk runs amok in the online world about each of these groups and they are usually beyond inaccurate. Who are birth/firstmothers? They are teenagers, they are women in college, and they are married women. They are women who are poor, women who are wealthy. They are women who have support and some who do not. How do they feel? Some are happy, some are not. Some are 2 weeks post placement, some are 10 years post placement, and some are into reunion. What did they go through? Some had closed adoptions, some have open. Some have something in between.
My hope is that through this project, one can SEE the reality of Adoption. A picture, of someone just like you, or maybe not what you’d expect and a story that will hopefully show you that we are all unique, as is how we live our lives.
I’m currently looking for participants in the project. Participants will be asked to complete an in person interview and photo shoot with me in your location. I am currently planning trips to Washington, DC area, Southern California and of course I can travel anywhere in Florida. I will plan trips to other locations as the need arises. Participation can be as open or anonymous as you wish. I will be starting with The Face of Relinquishment. I’m also interested in collecting interviews for other campaigns. You can see the current list on the right sidebar.
If you are interested in discussing further how you can participate in this project, feel free to comment below or send me an email at nikkijo@thefaceof.org
I sincerely believe that we change the world by changing one person’s perception at a time. With knowledge, we can alleviate fear and without fear we can instigate change. Let’s start by showing our faces, our real faces and giving name to the issues we carry in our thoughts and hearts.
