They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. I usually think that just sounds cliche, but after seeing this photo project by Angelo Merendino, I've changed my mind. Angelo's project starts with a beautiful love story:
"The first time I saw Jennifer I knew. I knew she was the one. I knew, just like my dad when he sang to his sisters in the winter of 1951 after meeting my mom for the first time, “I found her.” "
It was a whirl-wind romance that culminated in a wedding in Central Park. Jennifer was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 months later.
"Five months later Jen was diagnosed with breast cancer. I remember the exact moment…Jen’s voice and the numb feeling that enveloped me. That feeling has never left. I’ll also never forget how we looked into each other’s eyes and held each other’s hands. “We are together, we’ll be ok.”
Angelo did the one thing he knew how to do -- take photos. He chronicled the journey and brought a face and a name to the illness that affects 1 out of 8 women. It's definitely worth checking out the photos and learning more about their story
"The distress we see someone experiencing — the compassion we feel for them — isn’t determined by the objective facts on the ground; it’s determined by who’s looking. … It’s not the severity or the objective facts of a disaster that motivate us to feel compassion and to help — it’s whether or not we see ourselves in the victims." - David DeSteno
If facts alone were convincing, the world would look very different. We'd take global warming seriously. Hunger would be a thing of the past. And, cigarettes would not be on the shelf. Instead, we need stories to be convinced. We need to feel a connection. That's why I really like this Equal Pay campaign by Publicis & the International Women's Media Foundation.
"According to statistics, women’s earnings in the US “were 77% of men’s in 2011”, while in Switzerland, women earned “roughly 20% less than equally skilled men in comparable positions”.
If this fact really resonated with us, we'd be a lot more vocal. In reality, progress has stalled. To bring the stat to life, they launched an "Equal Pay Day" where men received 20% less money when they took out money from an ATM. They got to actually walk in someone else's shoes for the day. See the video below.
