Rachel Stecker

Active Players in History Instead of Passive Victims

In many ways the people with whom I share my life set themselves apart from the general public. My subjects are beautiful people on the inside and out, and their beliefs are not drawn from the mass media. I feel they think for themselves and act on those beliefs in many, if not all, aspects of their lives.

Going into non-traditional settings, I created images that work along traditional photographic guidelines. I use this technique to entice the viewer in to the images and involve them in the text and content. My subjects are people who for the most part are stereotyped because they do not lead conventional lives. Over the past few years, the media has begun to portray people who lead an atypical life as destructive. However, what they do has a purpose, usually to better our society.

I am portraying their beliefs by interviewing them about what they do in their lives. I also asked them to talk about what they feel is important. I wanted to give them control of these two aspects because more people need to know about their beliefs and how they act on them.