ROGERS PARK — If you've ever walked past a neighbor on the sidewalk or street, or sat across from someone on the train, or even encountered a person alone in a café and pondered what their personal story is — then you might want to check out the "People Of Rogers Park" blog.
In fact, according to the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows — another blog picking up steam that creates and explores words that describe complex emotions — there's a word for this: Sonder, meaning "the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own."
Photographer Clint Smith, who used to shoot street portraits in the late 1980s, said after realizing the success of the popular "Humans Of New York" postings, he wanted to know more about the people living around him.
The blog showcases pristine headshots of the diverse population that makes up Rogers Park, one of the city's most distinct neighborhoods.
People interviewed share their backstories, hopes, fears, advice and more, including how and why they came to be Rogers Parkers.
Intimate details of divorce, life, death and love are all voiced though the blog in residents' own words — but no one is named.
In one post, a neighbor who identifies as being transgender opens up about going through the transitioning process and in another a man talks about being the victim of a hate crime.
One post shows a newly dating couple swooning over each other on the day of their one-week anniversary.
"Just give it a good try," one resident says. "Try to be good. Try to handle the world as best you can," one neighbor said.
After scouting Far North locations for a place to shoot headshots for a friend, Smith said he'd asked three different strangers to stand in for test shots in three locations in Rogers Park. He said he was "amazed" by the willingness of people unknown to him to allow him to photograph them and talk a little.
"I was convinced that with the advent of digital photography and in the Internet, that no one would agree to be photographed in same the way they were 30 years ago," he said. "Those three people were instrumental in changing my mind, and gave me the courage to begin People of Rogers Park."
Smith said since starting the blog a few months ago, he's interviewed more than 100 people who he's encountered while out and about in his daily routines.
While the blog started accidentally, Smith said he genuinely enjoys hearing about his neighbor's lives, whether it's part of the project or just a simple conversations.
He's learned that people want to tell their stories and talk, and he's happy to become a vessel for them.
"It is absolutely human to want to communicate and to want to be understood. I am making an opportunity for people to do just that because I'm personally very interested in hearing them — as part of the project or not."
He said he's like to continue into the fall, but the project has been time-consuming. But he said he's open to working with residents who feel they have a story to share and who wish to be photographed.
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