Blake Noyes - onehundredrolls

"ONE HUNDRED ROLLS"

The idea for this project was pretty simple at the onset: find average, “boring,” people on the street that would make a decent portrait and get a few words from them that might give outsiders an insight into the day-to-day lifestyles of someone on the opposite side of the planet.

I talked to a whole lot of people in the 13 countries I visited throughout southern Asia, and throughout all of the conversations I had and mock ‘interviews’ I held, my aims began to take further shape. My original intent of portraying the extreme dissimilarity of lifestyles here and abroad doubled back on itself. More often than not I was comparing our lifestyles rather than contrasting. "We’re not so different, you and I." That was the thought that became omnipresent throughout the rest of the trip. For everything that is different – the foods, the colors, the religions and philosophies, the prices and the politics – we’re all still human. One Hundred Rolls took on another role as a humanizing project. An attempt at making the world a little bit smaller, one portrait at a time. A thought, that no matter where you are located, where you are from, or where you are going, your story and your ideas are just as important, just as meaningful, and just as filled with emotions as the next person’s. There is no boring.