Jill Callison

jcallison@argusleader.com

Brian Opp and Christian Holman made a connection with two very different people, who seemed to have little in common other than a sense of gratitude.

One was a former legislator and candidate for lieutenant governor, her face familiar across the state, who expressed her thankfulness for her husband and family. The other, someone who might go unnoticed by many, shared his good fortune at having The Banquet to turn to for food and companionship.

They share something else, too. Both call Sioux Falls home, and both were willing to make a connection with total strangers.

That’s part of the purpose behind Opp and Holman’s Humans of Sioux Falls project.

“I believe everyone deep down wants to connect and wants to relate,” Holman says. “This draws people toward things they can relate to.”

Humans of Sioux Falls is modeled after Humans of New York, which was started in 2010 by photographer Brandon Stanton. He decided to document those who call that city home. He since has turned the project into a best-selling book and has more than 11 million followers on Facebook and another 2.1 million on Instagram.

Stanton originally planned to photograph 10,000 people and plot their locations on a map. Humans of New York expanded when the self-taught photographer began including quotations and stories with his subjects.

‘Stories of the people who call our city home’

Opp, 28, and Holman, 20, have a similar goal. As it states on Humans of Sioux Falls’ Facebook page, which has collected more than 2,500 followers since it started Nov. 1: “We hope to share the stories of the people who call our city home. We aim to provide a place that celebrates culture and understanding of one another.”

To do that, they’re willing to walk up to total strangers and ask questions. In turn, they get a question back, usually asking about the motives behind the project.

“They say ‘Are you doing this for a school project?’ or ‘Who do you guys work for?’ ” Opp says. “They’re always surprised we’re doing it for no monetary value or for a grade. That’s indicative of our culture: You have to have an incentive to do something. You can’t just do it. We don’t do anything for free or for fun.”

But that’s exactly how they view Humans of Sioux Falls. Opp, who has a journalism degree from the University of South Dakota, owns Prairie Tickets Inc., a marketplace for sports and concert tickets locally and nationwide, with his wife. He is a native of Aberdeen who has lived in Sioux Falls for four years.

Holman, a six-year resident, owns his own business, Holman Photography. When the two men go out in search of new portraits for Humans of Sioux Falls, they generally play to their strengths: Opp with a notebook, Holman with a camera.

They met through mutual friends in the local music scene and began collaborating earlier this year after Opp ran into Holman at the 41st Street Coffea.

Technology connects yet also disconnects us

“I saw the emotional connect and cultural connect of Humans in New York, and I thought Sioux Falls is such a melting pot, it has a lot of culture and things to share as well,” Opp says. “But I knew I couldn’t do it alone.”

When he saw Holman sitting in the coffee shop, Opp walked over and shared his idea. Holman was receptive.

“I had had the idea a while back, too, but I never took the steps,” Holman says. “This was the trigger. I said, we have to do this. There’s no doubt in my mind that we have to move forward.”

Despite all the technology that offers immediate connection, people are becoming lonelier and more secluded, the two men think. By seeing the photographs and the stories, the viewer finds something relatable.

Bill Swart, a sociology professor at Augustana College, says people are living in a historical moment in time when people no longer make deep social connections. That could be one reason there is a fascination with strangers and their stories as shown in Humans of New York and Humans of Sioux Falls.

“It’s almost a kind of voyeurism,” he says. “We make up for this loss (in social connections) as we walk down the street in everyday life and ignore each other.”

With digital technology so readily available, people are becoming less used to making face-to-face connections. When they are in the room, cellphones or other devices in hand, it can become a case of “alone together.”

People are becoming increasingly inter-passive with one another, sharing the same social spaces but not having conversations.

“We use digital media to share information with people but not to make deep, meaningful conversations,” Swart says. “It’s hard to have a conversation on Twitter and Facebook. Twitter limits us to 140 characters. Our social relationships are oriented more through digital media.”

Opp and Holman, too, have to come out from behind their technology to approach possible subjects for Humans of Sioux Falls. They motivate each other, refusing to be discouraged when someone turns them down and using each other to remain passionate about the project.

“The sky’s the limit, and you have to try,” Opp says. “Otherwise, you’ll never know. You learn a lot about other people, and, in turn, you learn a lot about yourself.”

Online

To follow Brian Opp and Christian Holman’s Humans of Sioux Falls project, visit facebook.com/humansofsiouxfalls