WHAT’S your biggest struggle at the moment?
That’s the simple question Stuart Holden asked a seemingly ordinary office worker in November after she agreed to be photographed for his Humans of WA project.
“You really want to know?” she said.
“It’s a bit confronting.
“I would say my biggest issue in life has been my battle with drugs.”
In the few moments the photographer spent with the woman on a Perth street, she revealed a life which started with parties and festivals, then spiralled into drug addiction, family tragedy and a bitter struggle to turn it all around.
She showed him the track marks on her arms and the naltrexone implant which saved her life but asked him not to photograph her face. She is not the woman pictured at right.
Her story is one of hundreds featured in Holden’s Humans of WA project in the past two years which has exploded online.
The 33-year-old started the project, inspired by the Humans of New York project, as a tribute to his best friend, Luke Wales, who was killed in a car crash in 2012.
It has grown at a dizzying rate and now has more than 30,000 “likes” on Facebook, reaching an average 280,000 users a month.
Holden, a relief teacher when not taking photos, said the project had helped him manage his grief, given him a new purpose and opened his eyes to the people of WA.
“There are so many types of people in WA, from every walk of life, every race, nationality and they all have a common thread,” he said.
“And that common thing is that they’re all stoked to be here.”
Holden said it could be daunting to photograph strangers.
He could receive up to 50 rejections a day and was once almost strangled.
But the project’s power to inspire people and change their perceptions had awed him.
“Every say 20 rejections, you get two amazing portraits of two amazing people,” he said.
“I got a message from a guy (when) I put a photo up, and he messaged through and said, ‘last night I was thinking about killing myself’.
“He said, ‘I was down, and I wasn’t even a fan of your page, someone else liked it, I saw it pop up on Facebook. It was about this girl and her struggles’.
“And he says, ‘I’m not lying, that honestly stopped me from killing myself’.
“So in a roundabout way, that girl saved that guy’s life.”
He also hopes to draw attention to the stories of people living in regional WA.
Holden has emphatically rejected any attempts by businesses to leverage the page’s support base for advertising.
He said it was only ever meant to be a way to honour his friend.
The project has, however, organically become a vehicle for the community to help disadvantaged West Australians.
Last year, Holden’s followers provided 260 sleeping bags for people living rough on Perth’s streets.
In 2015, he aims to do a canned food drive, another sleeping bag drive and set up a $30,000 scholarship for school children in memory of his friend with the community’s help.
Holden said people get excited about giving when they can see the results immediately in their own backyard, rather than being stopped on the street by impersonal charity workers.
This year, he also wants to venture further into regional WA with trips planned for Esperance and Geraldton.
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Originally published as Humans of WA project: Mate’s death inspires part-time photographer to reach out to others
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