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Agents of Change
There’s been a lot of talk about hope and change in the U.S. presidential race. These buzzwords quickly permeated the North American media, and Obama’s opponents have grown increasingly sick of hearing them; they claim he uses them as grandiose, empty ideas without providing any substantive evidence of how they could be used to better American politics. But photographer John Beebe never bought into those attacks; he’s heard the references to change and hope and knows that they aren’t machinations of the human mind. He sees change in the faces of America.
Beebe’s name might sound familiar—not only is he a former Torontoist contributor, he was also the architect behind the FacesOf Toronto experiment for CONTACT earlier this year. Having moved to Toronto from the U.S., Beebe used this project to get acquainted with the city and admits he had no idea if it would actually work. Given its success, however, Beebe contemplated how he could integrate a similar idea into American politics, which he was heavily involved in before he moved north of the border. The end result of this deliberation was the Faces of 2008 campaign, shot at the Democratic National Convention in Denver this past August.
Although he didn’t work for a major news organization, and he held no political clout, Beebe was able to pitch his idea of capturing the faces that will change America to the convention’s organizers. Not only did he believe in his concept, he thought it perfectly coincided with the party’s new election image. “I knew it was right on message with what the Democrats were trying to say,” he said, alluding to the party’s intent to represent diversity in America. It also didn’t hurt that Beebe wasn’t asking for anything more than the space required to set up his portable studio. Once he was granted approval, Beebe had no problem getting people to participate in the project. “People like having their photo taken,” he said, adding, “The harder part was trying to get people to understand that this was free.”
Having now completed the shoot, Beebe’s work has received recognition from The Huffington Post and he feels very fortunate to have been able to add his voice to what he believes is an extraordinary campaign. “What I experienced in Denver…there’s never been a level of enthusiasm like this for a candidate and an election in U.S. history” he said. Even here in Toronto, he was able to find volunteers for test shoots through Barack Obama’s website who were more than willing to help him with his idea. Touched by this vigour, Beebe is contemplating creating a documentary from the footage he shot in Denver while photographing his subjects. If it’s produced, the piece will feature the electorate who Beebe believes will no longer accept being divided by fear.
All photos by John Beebe.