Fogarty lectures on Dear World Project for Mental Health Week

The Dear World photography project is designed to help people express their life stories, photographer Robert Fogarty said in a lecture on Monday.

Fogarty was on campus on Monday to photograph students for his project as a part of Mental Health Week.

“We’re here to celebrate your voices,” Fogarty said.

Fogarty began the lecture by sharing stories of people he has met over the years through Dear World, including children he met in the Zaatari refugee camp in Jordan, former professional football player Steve Gleason and his struggle with ALS and survivors of the Boston Marathon.

He started the project in New Orleans in 2009.

Five University students also discussed their personal experiences at the lecture, includingBriana Christophers ’17, Ryan Fulmer ’16, Leea Driskell ’17, Zhan Okuda-Lim ’15 and Christina Rice ’17.

“You have to go through these things to connect with other people,” Rice said.

As each student spoke, their picture taken from earlier in the day was projected on a screen. Most of the photographs had subjects pose with a message of their choice written somewhere on their bodies, which wastrue to Dear World’s typical form.

“As you watch [the students], I’d love for you to think: What are the stories behind their [written] messages?” Fogarty said.

Themes discussed included finding strength in things they love, finding their voice, learning to love themselves and struggling with homelessness.

“It’s really insightful that we got to see you guys for only a day, but the way you opened up to us was so humbling,” Dear World producer Jonah Evans said.

The presentation ended with a slideshow of student portraits taken earlier in the day.

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“I hope the photos serve as a brief moment into someone’s story,” Fogarty said. “The words that people write are the first lines to a much greater story, and what I hope is that someone sees the portrait of a friend of a friend, or a classmate, or a colleague, and asks them, ‘Hey, what’s the story behind that?’ ”

The Dear World project was brought to the University to offer something different for the fourth annual Mental Health Week, Naimah Hakim ’16, a member of the Mental Health Week Committee, said after the lecture.

“In light of the legacy of photography we’ve had in mental health weeks past, I think we wanted to find something else that would fill that niche," she said. "Dear World in so many ways exceeds our expectations."

Okuda-Lim, a member and past chair of the Mental Health Initiative, explained after the lecture that he heard of Dear World through friends at the University of Nevada, Reno.

“Sharing stories of hope and stories of struggle and stories of a brighter day, that theme of a photography project would be something to bring here to Princeton for Mental Health Week 2015,” he said.

The lecture took place in Frist 302 at 8 p.m.

Correction:Due to a reporting error, the March 3 article, "Fogarty lectures on Dear World Project for Mental Health Week," inaccurately stated how long Fogarty was on campus. He was on campus on Monday for the photoshoot and lecture. The 'Prince' regrets the error.