The Many Faces Of The People of Detroit
I suppose that now would be as good of a time as any to post these images of Noah Stephens, creator of the popular The People of Detroit blog/photo project ( http://www.thepeopleofdetroit.com/ ). Noah recently announced via his TPOD site that he was accepted into the Detroit Creative Corridor Business Acceleration program. I’d first off like to extend my congrats to him. TPOD has flourished into an amazing project and site, and Noah has done a great deal of work combating all the negative imagery and stories about Detroit that are put out by the local and national media. He has earned and deserves every bit of recognition he receives, and I’m honored to call him a friend of mine.
Now that all the mushy shit is out of the way, let’s REALLY talk about Noah. He’s not all positivity, double rainbows, and group sing-a-long’s. Truth be told, he’s kind of a jerk. Getting Noah out of his cave and interacting with other human beings can be like pulling teeth, which is why it was surprising that we were able to get out one night and have this photo shoot. We’d often talked about collaborating on some nighttime shooting, and on this fateful night when all the stars aligned, Noah shaved his Moses beard, shed his tattered hobo rags in favor of a t-shirt and jeans, and we hit the streets for some nighttime shooting.
My goal for the night was to showcase Noah’s lesser-known personality traits. Actually, who am I kidding? My goal for the night was just to get a decent shot. One of the most difficult aspects of shooting at night is getting proper focus on your subject, and both Noah and I struggled to do just that.
My SECONDARY goal for the night was to showcase Noah’s lesser-known personality traits. The image at the top of the post was my favorite of the night. I wanted to capture him doing something goofy, and told him to grab his camera. My initial idea was to capture him making out with his lens (and believe you me, I did), but I ended up liking the above image much more. I find it to be a good mixture of Noah doing something goofy (stroking his lens like Dr. Claw stroked Mad Cat on Inspector Gadget), while simultaneously looking pretty diabolical.
I call this image, “Noah the Cynic.” I think this is the face that Noah makes at his computer screen while reading his Facebook newsfeed. It says, “Did you REALLY just say that? Are you REALLY that dumb?”
This is “Hopeful Noah.” He has hope for the future. Hope for the kids. Hope for the city of Detroit. He’s sees brightness on the horizon. All that corny stuff, and any other cliches you can come up with.
This is Noah’s “Come hither, you know you want this” look that he gives the beautiful women he encounters on TV when he’s not leaving his home. lol
If you live under rock and have not yet seen Noah’s “The People of Detroit” blog and photo project, check out the site at http://www.thepeopleofdetroit.com/
You can also check out Noah’s Flickr page for hi-res images from TPOD, as well as some of his work … http://www.flickr.com/photos/noahstephens/
And of course, you can follow him on Twitter … http://www.twitter.com/peopleofdetroit
Until next time…
Michael LaCombe Photography 