The Cville People Project, a documentary photography project, was partially inspired by the Humans of New York website, which is the result of the attempt of one photographer to provide a sort of photographic census of New York City.

However, the focus of this project is somewhat different. I believe that we come to know a city through the people who live there, so my goal is to depict the city of Charlottesville through its inhabitants. I intend to make portraits of as many Charlottesvillians as possible and share them, along with a little bit about each person, on this photoblog.

Feel free to contact me at cville.people@gmail.com if you would like to be part of the project or know someone who would.

You can see more of my photos on my other blog The Things I've Seen and on my Flickr stream. You can also follow me on Instagram (K_A_Sprouse) or Twitter (@K_A_Sprouse).

23rd June 2012

Photo with 3 notes

Sakeena, the peaceful one One of the things that has come from working on my street portraiture project is that I find myself paying more attention to the faces of people I see as I go about my daily life, not just looking at their facial features, but also trying to look beyond their outward appearance to try to get a sense of their personality by noticing how they carry themselves, how they choose to dress or wear their hair, and how their expression might indicate something about who they are.  When I first saw Sakeena, I had this impression of a calm intensity — calm and intense not usually being words that one thinks of as going together — and I immediately wanted to make her portrait.  I approached her and explained my project, and she agreed to participate.  When she told me her name, I asked her what language it came from and what it meant in that language.  She explained that Sakeena is an Arabic name and that it is related to the Arabic word for peace or serenity or tranquility, which seemed to fit her perfectly.  She doesn’t speak much Arabic, although part of her ancestry is Iraqi, but she is studying it now and hopes to spend a year between graduating high school and beginning college studying the language in the Middle East.  When she told me that she was a student at the Renaissance School, I wasn’t entirely surprised, as all of the alums of that school that I have met seem to be really interesting people.   Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA

Sakeena, the peaceful one

One of the things that has come from working on my street portraiture project is that I find myself paying more attention to the faces of people I see as I go about my daily life, not just looking at their facial features, but also trying to look beyond their outward appearance to try to get a sense of their personality by noticing how they carry themselves, how they choose to dress or wear their hair, and how their expression might indicate something about who they are.  When I first saw Sakeena, I had this impression of a calm intensity — calm and intense not usually being words that one thinks of as going together — and I immediately wanted to make her portrait.  I approached her and explained my project, and she agreed to participate.  When she told me her name, I asked her what language it came from and what it meant in that language.  She explained that Sakeena is an Arabic name and that it is related to the Arabic word for peace or serenity or tranquility, which seemed to fit her perfectly.  She doesn’t speak much Arabic, although part of her ancestry is Iraqi, but she is studying it now and hopes to spend a year between graduating high school and beginning college studying the language in the Middle East.  When she told me that she was a student at the Renaissance School, I wasn’t entirely surprised, as all of the alums of that school that I have met seem to be really interesting people.  

Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA

Tagged: CharlottesvilleCvilleVirginiaCville People Project100 strangersstreet portraitportrait

  1. kasprouse reblogged this from cvillepeople and added:
    Reblogged from my other blog.
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