by Clara Che Wei Peh
What is surFace all about?
This project was initially inspired by the Humans of New York that photographs New Yorkers and collected short stories from its subjects photographed and many other similar projects. These blogs reminded me how important it is to try to get to know people on a deeper level before making judgements on them, and how upsetting it often feels when others judged me based on the bits and pieces they know of my exterior.
And what better place to start such a project but the school community that I'm involved with five days a week and eight hours a day?
surFace is really just about writing down these different stories, in the exact words of the subjects, and creating a platform for their stories to be shared. It gives people a chance to get to know the teachers and students around them outside of the classroom. It's also a rare opportunity for us to show people who we really are, or who we want to be.
And what better place to start such a project but the school community that I'm involved with five days a week and eight hours a day?
surFace is really just about writing down these different stories, in the exact words of the subjects, and creating a platform for their stories to be shared. It gives people a chance to get to know the teachers and students around them outside of the classroom. It's also a rare opportunity for us to show people who we really are, or who we want to be.
How were interviews conducted?
Jonathon and I would start by selecting different teachers and students across different departments and grades that we thought might have interesting stories or another side of their personality that isn't seen very often. We would then approach them personally and interview them in person, by recording down the conversation and writing it up afterwards.
We have two mandatory questions, one's about something most people don't know about the subject, and one's about a quote that they believe in or shares their ideas of life. On top of that, we ask them two to five questions from the list we have collated, to collect a range of stories or information about them.
Jing then photographs each subject by asking them to pose in 6 different facial expressions. Finally, Kloe cleans up the photos and turns them into a neat collage.
When everything is ready, I make some final edits by selecting only four paragraphs for each interview and uploading the interview onto this blog.
We have two mandatory questions, one's about something most people don't know about the subject, and one's about a quote that they believe in or shares their ideas of life. On top of that, we ask them two to five questions from the list we have collated, to collect a range of stories or information about them.
Jing then photographs each subject by asking them to pose in 6 different facial expressions. Finally, Kloe cleans up the photos and turns them into a neat collage.
When everything is ready, I make some final edits by selecting only four paragraphs for each interview and uploading the interview onto this blog.
Timeline
At the beginning of 2014, I first proposed this idea to Ms Fedio (CAS coordinator & teacher advisor). After getting an approval, I started recruiting trusted friends who could use their different talents to help make the delivery of this project more meaningful. We created an extensive list of questions and started interviews in October.We finished the project by June 2015, that's how long it took us to interview over 35 people, photograph them and write up the blog along IB!