Every day, you walk to class. And every day, you pass a countless number of other students as you walk to class. Don’t you wonder what those other individuals are thinking? Sure, that girl has a cool dress, and oh, that professor looks like he has worked at this school for over a hundred years. But what’s their story?

This is the mystery that Wake Forest junior, Morgan Yi, is attempting to solve with her new photography project, Humans of Wake Forest.

The brilliant econ major and journalism minor from Seoul, South Korea is truly one with the lens of a camera. She became interested in photography in middle and high school by taking pictures of field trips and friends, but her passion really took off when she finally got that Nikon D500 DSLR camera, which is what she currently uses to take pictures. To much surprise, Yi has actually never taken a photography class, but it is clear through the stunning photographs on Flickr that she has a natural eye for the simple beauty in the world around her.

Yi started taking pictures at Wake Forest last year when she took her first journalism class when she had to do a photo essay about style and fashion on campus. Not only was this the first time she spent time with her camera at school, but also the first time she had the specific intention to take pictures of people, and furthermore the first time she become aware of this subject as personal strength and interest. When I asked Yi why she loves capturing people in photographs so much, she responded, “You can see so much more in a picture of someone else; you can almost look into their soul. When you take pictures of people you have to do them justice. It’s such an interesting subject. I have to capture them to my best ability.”

As for "Humans of Wake Forest," it started out as a project for Yi's current journalism class, "Beat Reporting." The assignment was to choose a beat and use different multimedia elements to create stories for it throughout the semester. For those of you who do not know what a beat is (I didn't know either, but Morgan taught me), it is a topic that a journalist will follow. So as a fan of people and all they have to offer, Yi chose her beat to be "Diversity of Life," which she further describes as “the culture of life at Wake Forest.”

While this class project was focused solely on students, "Humans of Wake Forest" works to expand the spotlight onto other members of campus as well.

Yi attributes this broad subject aim to the inspiration of Brandon Stanton, aka the mastermind behind the well-known "Humans of New York." She noticed that there are no restrictions to who Stanton talks with or picks to photograph for HONY and so applied this to her own work. “If you think of Wake Forest University as just the students, that’s unfair,” Yi explains. “Wake forest is a community built up of more than just students, and sometimes we forget that because we’re just interacting with students on a daily basis." Yi believes that the whole spectrum of our college community needs to be shown, so she looks to also photograph professors, service workers, other faculty, and even prospective students and parents.

An essential part of both Stanton and Yi's work is the conversational element that supplements the photography. Yi's favorite part of the project is the honest and truthful conversations she is able to have with complete strangers, and "Humans of Wake Forest" and the captions that go along with each picture show a vulnerability of each person who was willing to let their guard down. Yi shared that she was both humbled and honored that they were willing to do this, and that "their words and their stories were just important as the pictures I was taking."

Now what I really want readers to take away from Yi's project and this article is the larger message that is being supported. There is a reason "Humans of New York" has caught the attention of so many people in America and around the world. As Yi puts it, “Brandon Stanton tapped into an idea that everyone was thinking, and it fueled this appreciation for everyone around us.” When you think about it, there could be a Humans of.... basically anywhere. People are naturally curious about those that surround them, and we should not be afraid to learn more about each other. There is an entire human experience to be shared, and no matter how different we are, we can relate to each other in some way, whether it is through music, conversation, or some other art.

So, what is in the future for "Humans of Wake Forest"? Morgan Yi is still debating whether the project will continue. She explains that it is starting small, because it is in no way an attempt to replace the old abandoned Facebook page or compete with the popular Forest Folk. She emphasizes that when it comes down to it, her main motivation for the project is the pure fun of the experience. Don't forget to check it out on Flickr: Humans of Wake Forest.