When Alayna Davidson saw a man dancing at Frog Baby, her first instinct was to pull out her phone and snap a picture.
After the sophomore architecture major got a suitable photo, she approached him, asking why he was dancing.
“I dance because I can say what I want to say without saying anything,” he said.
Davidson jotted this down, already planning to upload the photo and quote to her Humans of Ball State Instagram page later that day, which she started in September as a personal project.
The project was inspired by the Humans of New York website, which started in 2010 and showcases photos of everyday people in New York and includes a blurb about their lives.
“With my major, I don’t get to do a lot of things I just can do for myself, and in high school I took a photography class and really loved it,” she said.
Davidson said she searches for people who look like they have stories to tell.
“I find inspiration in what people bring,” she said. “I trust my gut more than anything. If I just feel it, I go with it.”
A few weeks into her project, Davidson’s friend texted her and told her there was a Humans of Ball State Facebook page as well.
Davidson messaged the owner of the page, Dan Jacobsen, a sophomore telecommunications major. She asked if he would want to collaborate with her, and he did.
She said they are starting to merge the two pages together, but since they just decided to work together, they aren’t clear on most of the details yet.
When Jacobsen started the page in October, he didn’t know there was already an Instagram profile with the same name. He started it because he was intrigued by the idea of doing something similar to Humans of New York.
He said since Ball State has a large population, he thought it would be a good idea to make a Humans of Ball State page.
His first post was of a friend of his who walks around campus barefoot and plays the ukulele.
“I thought he’d be someone who’s really interesting who people would want to know about … and it kind of took off,” Jacobsen said.
He said he thought Ball State students would be interested in knowing about each other, even if they might not know the person.
“[On] Humans of New York … you see quotes that tell a story about a person that you would have never known if you hadn’t seen that quote,” Jacobsen said. “I think this is a good way to learn about people on campus.”
Jacobsen has different techniques than Davidson to find students to feature.
“For the most part, I’m just going for average people,” he said. “If someone catches my eye, I’ll stop and ask them a few questions.”
The two pages have very different styles, but Davidson said that wouldn’t be a problem. She said she likes how their styles distinguish them.
Davidson posts all her photos in black and white and crops them tight on the subject, while Jacobsen’s photos are in full color.
“It’s the architecture person coming out in me,” Davidson said. “I’m a very modern, minimalist person and I don’t really like color that much. I think it focuses more on who they are as a person rather than what they’re wearing or the place they are.”
Kylie Leonard, a sophomore communications major, was Jacobsen’s fifth photo posted on the Facebook page.
“We were just talking, so he asked me a few questions, which led into him asking who my best friend is, which is my mom,” Leonard said.
She follows the Humans of New York page on Facebook, and she said she likes pages like this because they showcase people that aren’t normally seen in life.
“Humans of New York goes and shows you all the different individuals of New York,” she said. “It shows that each person has a story if you look and listen to them.”
