That’s what Claire Bangser, one our TEDxTU 2015 speakers, is trying to do with NOLABeings, that is to tell the story of New Orleans through pictures of the beings who live here. If any of you have ever heard of Humans of New York, it’s a similar concept.

Claire started NOLABeings on a whim while dining at Café du Monde with a friend. Since then, it’s taken off to the point that she’s had hundreds of thousands of views on some of her pictures. Except for a quick explanation of her background and the fact that she picks everything from the person to the quotes, she truly tries to keep herself from being the center of the project; she wants the project to truly show off NOLA and the uniqueness of its diverse neighborhoods and inhabitants.

Genuineness is Claire’s main concern. Initially, she used some filters, but she felt that keeping photos raw really shows the people. Not only that, but she doesn’t shy away from raw emotions, whether hopeful or desperate. In fact, she aims to make them the focus of the pictures as she takes close ups where you can see everything, the glint in people’s eyes, the worry lines at the corners of their eyes, the lifted corner of their mouth, etcetera.

She takes this authenticity to a new level as she records almost every interview simply to get each word just so. She doesn’t want to miss even a piece of someone’s personality or of NOLA slang.

To read more about Claire and NOLABeings, check out these articles from the Hullabaloo and myneworleans.com.

Check her out at clairebangser.com. If you want to see more about NOLAbeings, you can find them at nolabeings.com, Facebook, and Instagram.

Come see Claire give a TEDx Talk on February 5th at 6 PM in Dixon Hall. Register for TEDxTU here.