Project – People of Our Earth
An International Portrait Project Promoting Understanding, Tolerance and Understanding Between Peoples
The Idea
People often respond to the unfamiliar with uncertainty. Where personal experience is lacking, simplified ideas about other people and cultures can easily develop. Lack of knowledge can lead to prejudice, distance and, ultimately, rejection.
This is where the project “People of Our Earth” comes in.
People of different backgrounds, cultures and ways of life are photographed in their personal surroundings and tell their own stories. The focus is not on portraying a particular culture or population group, but on the individual person, with their personality, experiences, concerns, hopes and circumstances.
The project aims to create encounters that reach across geographical, cultural and linguistic boundaries. A portrait, a personal story and a person’s voice can establish a direct connection that abstract information or statistics can rarely achieve.
The viewer should not see a “stranger” first, but get to know a fellow human being.
This is precisely where the project’s social significance lies: once we know a person’s story and have heard their voice, it becomes more difficult to reduce them to their origin, religion, skin colour, nationality or a social label.
“People of Our Earth” aims to reveal what makes people different – and, above all, what connects them.
Social Context
The world is becoming increasingly interconnected. People travel, work and live across national and cultural boundaries. At the same time, social polarisation, exclusion and prejudice are increasing in many places.
As a speech and language therapist, the project’s initiator noticed that the German word “Ausländer” (“foreigner”) has acquired increasingly negative connotations in everyday language. This seems paradoxical in an increasingly globalised world.
The project does not seek to counter this development with a political message in the narrower sense, but with a personal one.
A good portrait can create a moment in which the viewer pauses and asks: Who is this person? What have they experienced? What matters to them? What are their hopes and wishes? And what connects me with them?
Photography thus becomes a medium of human encounter.
“People of Our Earth” therefore sees itself as a cultural and social project opposing prejudice and exclusion, and contributing to tolerance, mutual understanding and understanding between peoples.
It is not about idealising unfamiliar cultures or presenting individuals as representatives of entire population groups. The protagonists should be seen as distinct individuals – authentically, respectfully and with as little distortion as possible.
The Protagonists and Their Stories
Over the course of this long-term project, people from different countries, cultures and social environments will be portrayed.
Their selection will not follow a rigid set of criteria. What matters is the person’s individuality, their life story and the opportunity to gain an authentic insight into their world through a personal encounter.
People from large cities may be just as interesting as those from rural areas. Members of traditional or religious communities may be featured alongside artists, craftspeople, workers, entrepreneurs or people whose lives have been shaped by extraordinary experiences.
The first major phase of the project is planned to take place in Brazil. Salvador, in particular, and its culturally diverse surroundings offer opportunities to meet people from different social and religious communities. Planned encounters include members of Candomblé and Umbanda communities, as well as contacts with people who work with Indigenous communities.
The aim is not to photograph as many people as possible in passing. The quality of the encounter takes priority. Trust and time are essential for personal stories to emerge.
Photography, Text and Original Voice
The project aspires to professional photographic and journalistic standards. Rather than becoming a collection of travel photographs, it is intended to develop into an independent documentary and artistic work.
The protagonists are photographed in their personal surroundings. Alongside an expressive portrait, a second photograph may be taken to reveal something about their everyday life, living conditions or environment.
The photographs are accompanied by each protagonist’s personal story. Their account is recorded, translated and carefully edited, while preserving the personal character of the narrative.
The original voice plays a particularly important role.
The stories should not only be read, but also heard. A QR code gives viewers access to an audio recording in which the protagonist tells their own story.
In this way, the project brings together three elements:
Image – Story – Voice.
Readers see a person, read their story and then hear their voice. This helps to bridge some of the distance between the viewer and the person portrayed.
Publication will, of course, take place only with the protagonists’ appropriate consent. Their personal rights and the dignity of their stories are central to the project.
The First Photo Book
One of the main outcomes of the first project phase is intended to be a high-quality international photo book featuring approximately 40 protagonists.
The first volume will be published in German and English. The protagonists’ stories will not be printed in their original languages, but in German and English translations. The original languages will, however, be preserved through audio recordings accessible via QR codes.
Each protagonist will have a dedicated section featuring their portrait, a second photograph from their personal surroundings and their individual story.
The photo book aims to combine photography, personal storytelling and modern digital means of presentation. It is intended not only for people interested in photography, but also for anyone willing to engage with personal encounters and different ways of life.
Accordingly, the standards for photography, editing, translation, design, paper, printing and technical production are high. The book is not intended as a short-lived media product, but as a lasting cultural document.
Exhibitions and Further Outreach
The project’s impact should extend beyond the photo book.
Selected portraits will be presented in multimedia travelling exhibitions. Large-format photographs may be accompanied by short texts and QR codes, allowing visitors to hear the protagonists’ original voices.
Exhibitions are planned for cultural institutions, museums, schools, libraries and other suitable public spaces. Talks and events are also envisaged, presenting the development of the project, the protagonists and their respective ways of life.
Where appropriate and organisationally feasible, short documentary film portraits may also be produced. These will complement the photographic work rather than compete with it.
Over the years, the aim is to create a multimedia archive of personal encounters that brings people from different backgrounds into a more direct relationship with one another.
A Project Spanning at Least Ten Years
“People of Our Earth” has deliberately been conceived as a long-term project. The first major journey to Brazil is planned for March 2027. Further countries and regions are to follow in subsequent years.
This long-term perspective is essential to the quality of the project. Personal stories do not emerge in fleeting encounters. It takes time to get to know people, build trust and understand the realities of their lives.
Over a period of at least ten years, a growing collection of portraits and stories is therefore intended to emerge. Each journey will add new people and new perspectives to the project.
An international network of protagonists, translators, cultural institutions, educational organisations and other cooperation partners is also envisaged.
The goal is not to produce the greatest possible number of photographs, but to build a collection of extraordinary human encounters.
The Initiator and the Association
The initiator and artistic director of the project is Hartmut Hufeld. His long-standing connection with photography and his personal experiences while travelling form the starting point of the project. As a young man, he won a photography competition held across the former German Democratic Republic (GDR).
Numerous journeys and extended stays abroad have shaped his perspective on different cultures and ways of life. His experiences in Brazil, in particular, showed him how different people’s living conditions can be, while their fundamental wishes and needs often remain remarkably similar.
The non-profit association “Menschen unserer Erde” was founded to provide a basis for the project’s long-term implementation. Its objectives include promoting art and culture, public education, international understanding, tolerance and understanding between peoples.
The association provides the organisational framework for the journeys, the production of the photo book, exhibitions and other project activities. Funding is intended to come primarily from donations, grants, foundations, sponsorships and partnerships.
The project is looking not only for financial supporters. Equally important are contacts with people and institutions in the countries visited, translators, cultural partners, exhibition venues and others who can contribute to its implementation.
The Vision
The final result should not be an encyclopaedia of cultures.
It should be a collection of people.
People with different languages, faces, religions, professions and life stories – and with many hopes and needs in common.
Perhaps one day, a viewer will look at the portrait of someone whose world initially seems completely unfamiliar. They will read that person’s story and then hear their voice.
And suddenly, this person is no longer simply “the stranger”.
They are a fellow human being.
This is the central idea behind “People of Our Earth”.
The project does not seek to change political borders. It seeks to help make the boundaries in our minds a little smaller.
It aims to encourage people not to judge one another primarily by origin, skin colour, religion or nationality, but to recognise each other as individuals.
One face. One voice. One story.
And perhaps the realisation that more connects us than divides us.