Stories off the street
First on Facebook and now in a book, Halifolks creator shares his experiences
Years spent stopping strangers to take their photo and talk about their heartbreaks and joys has taught Australian Jack Scrine one thing about Haligonians: there is no one thing about Haligonians.
“You can stop 10 people in a day and talk to them and realize how different their lives might be even to the assumptions you might have based on their appearance,” he said in an interview Wednesday.
“Halifax as a whole has a lot of things that I love about it, but the biggest thing I’ve learned about its people is you can’t categorize them in any one way.”
Scrine, the newcomer who said he now feels like a part of the furniture around here (except for the accent), recently published his first book Halifolks, based on his seven-year social media project.
AN OUT OF WORK, OUT OF COUNTRY, EX-JOURNALIST
Scrine found himself out of work in 2011. The magazine he worked for in Australia was sold off and he was laid off. He figured he’d go on an adventure and stay awhile with a friend who was living in Halifax.
He said he felt lost in life, that time in his mid-20s, and Halifax seemed like the perfect place to be. His first impression of Halifax, looking back now, was a sense of warmth and home, Scrine said.
“And over the course of the years, I kind of just fell in love with Halifax,” he said. “I fell in love with the people, the place and my first job here was a mall Santa at the Mic Mac Mall.”
He also fell in love, meeting his wife, Katie, here.
Scrine, who found it impossible to leave his camera and journalism roots behind even though he got a job in marketing, was always taking photos around town. The couple was infatuated with Brandon Stanton’s Humans of New York photo blog and decided there should be a Halifax version.
So, in 2015 he began stopping people on the street, photographing and interviewing them, then posting them on a Facebook page. A page that now has over 32,000 followers.
While Humans of New York was the inspiration which Scrine credits in his book, Halifolks has some big differences.
“I always thought that you could probably live in New York your whole life and follow that page and never recognize anyone that came up on that page,” Scrine said.
“I found Halifax to be quite the opposite – if you don’t know someone in a photo on Halifolks, chances are you know someone who knows that person.”
A BIT ABOUT THE PROCESS
It starts with throwing his camera
strap around his neck and going out for a walk around the city. Scrine said he pays attention and looks to catch someone’s eye, someone who is not in a hurry to get somewhere.
“I’m looking to see someone who’s in a moment where they’re not rushing, they’re not talking with someone else, they’re not listening to music or otherwise distracted by something and that can take a long time, honestly.”
He starts by asking to take a photograph, which people are more likely to be agreeable with than sharing intimate details of their lives, he said.
It’s incredible what strangers are willing to open up about with someone they just met on the street.
“I got to a pretty low point, where I was considering taking my life,” one person told Scrine. “Everywhere I looked, I didn’t feel anything. I didn’t fee like anybody could understand.”
Scrine said there’s a freedom that comes with telling a story about yourself to someone who doesn’t know you.
“A lot of the time I get the impression that some of the questions and topics that are covered in my interviews are things that people don’t really talk about very much with their friends, family. They are things that are on their minds, but there’s kind of a faux pas about opening up regularly even to those closest to you.”
But the interviews can also be sweet, hilarious and a snapshot in time: “I also have a puppy called Duke,” said one of the youngest interviewees. “He’s really old. He smells … like poop. I also have a baby sister called Rosie. She pooped on the floor.”
He gets his fair share of rejection, which doesn’t phase him. Even if people agree to it at the time and later regret seeing the post, they contact Scrine and he takes it down.
“The rejection is completely understandable and not something I ever took personally.”
NO NAMES, EVEN FOR THE HALIFAMOUS
It goes against the grain for any journalist not to get the names of interview subjects, but for Scrine, the photo is all the context anyone needs. The no-name style is also an element originated in Humans of New York.
“People in their quotes will say their name or identify themselves by name but I never really found that it was at the heart of what matters about the stories. I felt there is a power and a simplicity in a photo and story.”
Scrine has captured quite a few recognizable faces over the years – politicians, entertainers, musicians and others – bumping into them here and there. But their stories are the same tales of heartbreak, life lessons or bits of joy like every other.
He said the true magic of Halifolks is the connections made by people sharing their stories and recognizing someone’s pain in their own lives.
“Someone putting something out there that feels so
personal and all of a sudden that burden is lightened by a number of people who want to support you and thank you for sharing it and let you know they’ve gone through something similar,” he said.
Social media, of course, also has a dark side and Scrine said he spent many hours moderating the comments on the Facebook page. It was one reason he said why he wanted to write this book – that these stories needed a new place to live.
HAVING THE LAST WORD
Scrine and his wife Katie take the last few pages of the book. The camera was pointed in the other direction this time as the couple opened up to Nimbus editor Angela Mombourquette about their struggles with fertility.
“I wanted to demonstrate a willingness to put myself out there in the same way that my subjects have to me. I felt at least being able to offer some of the same vulnerabilities was my contribution.”
Halifolks: The Faces and Stories of Halifax will be officially launched in December but the book is already in many bookstores in the province and on online.