By: Cassandra Hachem

It’s 2015, and the news is still filled with stories of… evil. Discrimination, terrorism, racism, lack of civil liberties, however subtle or extreme they may be, they still live. They still linger. They still infest not just our country, but the world. It’s poison, toxin, that we allow to tarnish the reality we live in today. It baffles me. And as I’ve grown older and ventured away from home, it’s only become more evident. I don’t really know when I became so involved, and subsequently infuriated by this dismantled version of the world that’s surfacing more and more. I don’t know if it’s the subtle comments of racism I overhear in conversation, the ignorance I only recognize because I am of middle-eastern ethnicity myself, or solely the wretched stories of unfathomable violence that constitute our news segments every evening- but it got me thinking, if only we could all understand… Although we differ in many beautiful, unique ways… We Are Also All The Same. REAL WORLD INSPIRATION

(I asked myself): What is something we all have? -HEARTS? … Not really. Many are cold, blackened by misconceptions of reality and injustices. -MINDS?... Not really. Many are warped, disfigured and made sluggish by the darker corners of life and evil. -HANDS? … Yes. We all have hands. Hands, are an indentation of who we are and what we’ve been through. CONCEPTUAL THINKING

THE DEGRADED IMAGE : In some way, manage to capture the same image in nine different ways. This semester, Dr. Goodman has constantly challenged us to think differently. To push our minds past our pre-conceived limits of creativity. To explore the lengths of thinking conceptually… So I did. Conceptually speaking : I took the same exact image and captured it in nine brilliantly, fully, intricately, completely, different ways. THE ASSIGNMENT

I took a picture of my own hand. Then I blew it up into a 8x10. Pondered it. And considered, using only one word, what do my hands say about me? -Then, I approached eight different strangers. I showed them the 8x10 of my hand. -Then I told them to look at their hands, really look. -I then asked them the same question I asked myself: Using only one word, what do your hands say about you? -I recorded their answers. Then I asked if I could take a picture of their hand. -Then, regardless of who they were, where they came from, their age, their race, their religion, their gender, their political stance, their ethnicity, their beliefs or their background… I shook their hand. And told them how much of a pleasure it was to meet them. PROCESS:

IMAGE 1: “I am ambitious.” -Cassandra Hachem AGE: 21

IMAGE 2: “I am gracious.” -Shelly AGE: 69

IMAGE 3: “I am strong.” -Dennis AGE: 30

IMAGE 4: “I’m a dreamer.” -Lauren AGE: 23

IMAGE 5: “I am black.” -Yasmine AGE: 17

IMAGE 6: “I am different.” -Hannah AGE: 21

IMAGE 7: “I am happy.” -Sean AGE: 11

IMAGE 8: “I have lived.” -Paul -AGE: 72

IMAGE 9: “Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars… Hate cannot drive out hate. Only love can do that.” - Martin Luther King Jr.

IMAGE 10: We are all the same, in one way or another. We all differ in one way or another. The stories we’ve lived and the backgrounds we come from attribute to the beauty of this world, the conviction of our words, the righteousness of our liberties and the quality of our lives. What do your hands say about you?

Shake somebody’s hand today. And ask about their story. COEXISTCOEXIST