Newspaper Photographer Snapping One Portrait Every Day In His City

Everyday People is a photo project for Oklahoma newspaper Tulsa World by photographer John Clanton. The goal is to meet one new person in the community every day of the year, create a portrait of them, and display the image along with a short blurb about who they are.

Clanton writes,

Looking at the 2012 calendar and trying to imagine getting a portrait every single day seemed daunting before I started. Photo Editor Christopher Smith and I refined the idea through several conversations at the end of last year. We picked a consistent, vertical composition, always using a 50mm lens and decided that the discipline of looking for a picture every single day was of utmost importance. I’m not allowed to stockpile pictures and then release them on a different day.

I’m not looking for people who stand out in a crowd. The majority aren’t famous or in positions of power. They’re just Everyday People, like me. They are your neighbors, your co-workers, your kids’ teachers, the guy who prepared your food or the people you drove past on your way to work. They are people who love their work or live for their past-times. They are people with plenty to say or just enough time for a picture. Through these portraits I’m getting to know the city.

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