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).

6th October 2012

Photo with 3 notes

Melissa, the circus performer It’s not every day that you see circus performers on the Downtown Mall, so when I saw Melissa walking on some startlingly high stilts, while her companions were juggling and dancing around with a hula hoop, you can image that my interest was piqued.  I approached Melissa, whose bright smile, colorful ribbons in her hair, and cool Asian-inspired top all seemed to cry out to be photographed.  She leaned down — she was on some really tall stilts — and I explained my project to her and asked her if she would be willing to come down and let me make a portrait.  At first she suggested that I try one of her on the stilts, but I demurred.  So she took the stilts off, and we walked over to a nearby wall, where this portrait was made.Melissa told me that she is fascinated by and skilled in the circus arts, specifically fire dancing and belly dancing, and that she had taken up stilt-walking only three days before.  I was pretty shocked by this, and you would have been, as well, if you had seen how comfortable and steady she was on her stilts.  She told me that after this year’s Burning Man, she had set the goal for herself of learning how to walk on stilts within the next year, and it looks like she met her goal almost immediately.  It’ll be interesting to see what she tackles next. Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA

Melissa, the circus performer

It’s not every day that you see circus performers on the Downtown Mall, so when I saw Melissa walking on some startlingly high stilts, while her companions were juggling and dancing around with a hula hoop, you can image that my interest was piqued.  I approached Melissa, whose bright smile, colorful ribbons in her hair, and cool Asian-inspired top all seemed to cry out to be photographed.  She leaned down — she was on some really tall stilts — and I explained my project to her and asked her if she would be willing to come down and let me make a portrait.  At first she suggested that I try one of her on the stilts, but I demurred.  So she took the stilts off, and we walked over to a nearby wall, where this portrait was made.

Melissa told me that she is fascinated by and skilled in the circus arts, specifically fire dancing and belly dancing, and that she had taken up stilt-walking only three days before.  I was pretty shocked by this, and you would have been, as well, if you had seen how comfortable and steady she was on her stilts.  She told me that after this year’s Burning Man, she had set the goal for herself of learning how to walk on stilts within the next year, and it looks like she met her goal almost immediately.  It’ll be interesting to see what she tackles next.

Downtown Mall in Charlottesville, VA

Tagged: Cville People Project100 strangerscvillecharlottesvilleportraitsstreet portraitdowntown mall

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