New Rochelle City Hall Rotunda Gallery Exhibit

Each time you cross paths with a stranger on the street, it’s likely that you make some assumptions about the stranger. Purely based on their appearance, gait, and mannerisms, you often create your own idea of what their story is. 

 

Seeking to put a story behind the faces you pass by every day, we share the lives of New Rochelleans. Wenting Yu founded Humans of New Rochelle in 2019, taking inspiration from Humans of New York by Brandon Stanton. When she left for college, she passed the project on to us, and we were drawn in by how Stanton described the process: one where a feeling of understanding bonds individuals who were just strangers moments ago. We have since been learning the art of approaching strangers in parks for an interview. Beyond that routine, we reach out to well-known community figures to portray the human behind each public face. With a series of open-ended questions, interviewees highlight the aspects of their lives they find most important and shape their stories. 

 

Through a physical exhibit, we hope that our stories will reach a broader audience and inspire others to find value in their own stories while actively listening to and feeling empathy for the stories of others.