PrintThis year, former Spec photo editor Angela Radulescu and Bennet Hong, both juniors in CC, set out to photograph 99 students, placing the pictures alongside quotations that revealed the subjects’ personalities. The Eye sat down with them to discuss their motivation behind the project.
Is 99 Columbians for yourself?
Bennett: For me it was. It was definitely a way to push myself to exceed limits. You have to work even when you don’t want to. There were plenty of times where I was too tired to go shooting, to walk all the way down to someone’s dorm and shoot for two, even three hours. I don’t look forward to that every time. But it is a way to get better, and also to meet people.
Angela: I definitely agree. In the beginning, the idea seemed cool but it was mostly a framework to keep myself shooting. It was for myself to get better, especially at portraiture, which I was terrible at. Shooting constantly was the best way to do it.
Did you face any challenges while shooting?
A: It was definitely a challenge to get people to open up more. In the first 30-40 minutes of shooting, the person usually is not yet comfortable, and then after a while, they would forget the camera is there, and even start liking it. At the end of the day everyone likes the attention, so it is much easier to talk to start a conversation. Just divert their attention away from the camera, and then the whole experience becomes much more natural.
How did you pick the people to photograph?
A: One Sunday night we came up with the project, and we thought, how are we going to get people to contact us? Bennet came to the Spectator office that evening, where we set up a Facebook group with a very basic description of what we are trying to do. It basically said, “Does anyone want to be photographed?” Within an hour, a 100-something people joined the group saying they want to be photographed. They emailed us at our Gmail account, and there it was. We started scheduling with our calendar 128 people. There were a lot more people in the queue, but we are currently winding down after the exhibition...
B: And catching up with schoolwork!
A: We try to contact everyone and let him or her know the status of the project. Next year, we are definitely looking into getting more manpower, but right now we are trying to consolidate it to be permanent on server and Columbia’s campus. Beyond that, we have to figure out what to do after we graduate. I know a lot of prospective students were very interested.
How did you seek to capture the diversity of the whole of Columbia?
A: We didn’t have an expectation. Even at the exhibit, people looked at it and asked, “How did you pick the photographs? How did you pick the order?” The diversity came out of the project naturally. We didn’t seek 30 of these people and 30 of those people. People who want to be photographed will be photographed, and generally people from all walks of life come. This way it evolves a lot more organically, rather than us planning and forcing the whole thing.
What do you attribute your success to?
A: The website is a big, big part of 99 Columbians, and it wouldn’t have happened without Ryan Bubinski, who dedicated half his winter break to construct the website. When people look at it, they say it looks really cool, but they don’t realize how much work goes into it. It is his project as much as it is ours. It was mostly him coming up with the platform, with the works. He showed it to us and we said, “Great! That is exactly what we want.” It is really not easy to create that—and make it easy to use. Pretty sure he had to learn a lot of programming over winter break. Ryan was a big reason for which we succeeded.
How did you balance schoolwork with pursuing your passion?
B: We didn’t, we ended up pass/failing one class last semester. We had schoolwork, and we had 99 Columbians, so something has got to give. So we concentrated on one. But in the end you need to do both. In life, it is naïve to think you can only do whatever you want. At some point you have to go to work, meet your boss, and bring home food to the table. If you get to do what you want to do, that’s great. But at some point you have to sacrifice your passion.
A: For me, I try to not get stuck in one framework, I try to balance everything. Even in school I try to do things I enjoy doing. The classes I take I try to pick them based on what I’m getting at. Of course that’s hard because there’s always that nasty requirement. But I wouldn’t say I sacrificed schoolwork, but this just turned out to be more of an enriching experience.
How did you change as a result of this project?
A: I definitely changed as a photographer and a person. I realized I could take something like this into full completion, which is very important. By setting down something, and creating something substantial. Also, we were never a recognized student group, and had to work our way through the bureaucracy.
What is your next step?
A: We are also working with CUArts to see if we can construct a multimedia presentation that shows why it would be beneficial to sustain an art exhibit on campus. This really would not have been possible without the support of the Arts Initiative. It would be very nice to use 99 Columbians as a precedent for other students to begin independent projects like this one, and to create a framework for that to happen.
B: We are also thinking of starting a new project: 99 Columbians, but this time, celebrating professors, Wilma, the security guards—the other half of the Columbia community.
A previous version of this article read that the two pass failed a lot of their classes due to a transcribing mistake. The Eye regrets this error.