Archives are important when documenting historical, societal, personal, and even medical documents for individuals personally and on a greater scale, such as societal, as well. These documents are essential to determining what happened in the past and are important enough to be stored safely for future reference. Carter stated that “Archives are filled with voices” (Carter 216), thus, meaning that not only one person is able to generate the archives. Instead, it is composed of individuals that contribute different parts to society. Although these voices are created by those in the society itself, the archives cannot be generalized to everything in society (Carter 216). However, archival stories have the potential to allow one’s story to be heard by the public.
Humans of New York (HONY) is an example of an archival site by photographer Brandon Stanton. He would usually take portraits of individuals, usually having straight face as an expression, in New York City and have them share their story for Stanton to post online. Progressively, Stanton would have featured stories from kids suffering from cancer to overseas stories from his travels. HONY demonstrates how individuals together create a greater society and the impacts it has made on society. The stories featured in HONY are personal and are often an achievement of what the individual has overcome, or is going through. These stories tend to be moving for the audience to read and sometimes be able to connect to even though these sharers are strangers to them.
The HONY post that is going to be discussed is a three-part post about an elderly couple with the wife having dementia. The husband summarized their story. He told about how when they were “simple people” and “don’t have many big moments to share” (Stanton). The husband also shared the start of his wife’s decline in memory and how she started to forget names, directions, and tried to run way and “didn’t want to come back home”. (Stanton) He then told Stanton what they used to do before she had dementia and how “[he] miss that [they] can’t go out and dance. Or visit other people.” and how his wife would play the piano at the senior centre but now she cannot anymore. Instead, the couple stay there now. Instead of being frustrated, however, the husband sees it as an “honor”. He saw how his wife has been helping people her whole life and now it is time to pay back the deeds she has done for others by helping her. (Stanton)
After reading these three posts about the elderly couple, I was able to emphasize with them. Although they may be simple people, as the husband described, him and his wife see the little joys in life that most people would overlook. For instance, when he shared how he is still able to make his wife smile by making “bubbly noises”. The simple and little things are able to bring happiness into their lives despite the obstacles the couple is facing. I think that this post is able to reach out to the majority of individuals. This is because this situation could potentially happen to them. In today’s world, people are often over-working themselves trying to make money in order to provide for their family. On the other hand, they start missing out the simple details that brings more happiness. Present and future readers will be able to read this story and start prioritizing what is important in their lives.
Works Cited
Carter, Rodney C.S. “Of Things Said and Unsaid: Power, Archival Silences, and Power in Silence.” Archivaria 61 (2006). pp. 215-33
Stanton, Brandon. Humans of New York. Humans of New York, 21 Nov. 2016. Accessed 25 Feb. 2017. <http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/153479069531/13-i-was-nineteen-she-was-sixteen-our-dates>
Stanton, Brandon. Humans of New York. Humans of New York, 21 Nov. 2016. Accessed 25 Feb. 2017. <http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/153489703561/23-we-celebrated-our-50th-wedding-anniversary>
Stanton, Brandon. Humans of New York. Humans of New York, 21 Nov. 2016. Accessed 25 Feb. 2017. <http://www.humansofnewyork.com/post/153490207221/33-i-miss-that-we-cant-go-out-and-dance-or>