Humans of New York, Humans of World

~ Dzikri Sabillah Anwar

Pernahkah kita duduk di tengah keramaian, memandangi orang-orang  yang berlalu lalang dan membayangkan bagaimanakah hidup mereka, apa ambisi mereka, atau apa yang mereka rasakan? Di belahan dunia yang lain, tepatnya nun jauh di New York sana, seseorang (bernama Brandon) berinisiatif untuk melakukan sebuah proyek. Lebih dari sekedar melamun dan mengamati orang-orang di sekitarnya, setiap hari ia menjelajah sudut-sudut kota New York, menyapa dan berbincang dengan penduduk kota tersebut untuk menanyakan beberapa kisah hidup lawan bicaranya.

Menurut saya, Human of New York merupakan sebuah proyek yang menarik, mereka mampu menyampaikan sisi humanis manusia dengan manis. Di balik langkah manula menyisir trotoar, di balik tawa sepasang sahabat yang sedang piknik di taman, ataupun di balik lamunan wanita yang sedang mengantri segelas Starbucks, di balik semua wajah manusia-manusia modern tersebut, mereka mengalami berbagai macam peristiwa, yang membuat mereka tetap menyandang predikat sebagai ‘manusia biasa’.

Tiap kisah manusia tersebut dapat dipotret dengan baik oleh Brandon, tak jarang kita dibuat tersenyum, terenyuh hingga ikut merasakan pengalaman-pemgalaman ironi sosok manusia yang ada dalam foto tersebut. (Lebih dari itu saya berandai-andai pendekatan seperti apa yang dipakai si Brandon ini pada orang-orang yang ditemuianya. Bukankah orang-orang barat terkenal tak mudah mengungkap privacy-nya?)

“I grew up in a small village in Liberia. Everyone was like family. I left when I was 19 to study in France. While I was gone, the civil war came, and everyone in the village fled. Suddenly I had nowhere to go home to.”
“We were laying in bed just the other night, looking at the ceiling, and I said: ‘You know, it’s been thirty years, and it’s never felt worn. There’s never been a sense of tiredness with you.’”
“My grandmother always told me: ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re crippled, blind, or crazy. All this world cares about is how you survive. As long as you don’t do drugs or go to jail, you’re gonna be fine.’” “What do you mean by: ‘The world only cares about how you survive?’” “The only thing people care about is if you’re working, and if you’re paying your taxes. I worked for the city for six years. During the time that I was working, I was Mr. Matthew Phillips. The moment that I wasn’t able to work anymore, I became a social security number.’”
“Right after I lost vision in my eye, I was so bad at walking that I ran into a girl eating ice cream, and knocked her cone out of her hand. She screamed: ‘Are you blind!?!?’ I turned to her and said: ‘I am blind actually, I’m so sorry, I’ll buy you a new cone.’ And she said: ‘Oh my God! I’m so sorry! Don’t worry! It’s no problem at all! I’ll buy another one.’ So we walked into the ice cream store together, and the clerk said: ‘I heard the whole thing. Ice cream is free.”
“He had his first birthday yesterday, so he goes crazy every time he hears the ‘Happy Birthday’ song.” “Let’s see it.”

Sekarang, Brandon sedang melakukan perjalanan di sepuluh negara di dunia bersama PBB. Selama lima puluh hari, ia akan memotret wajah-wajah lain, kisah-kisah hidup yang lain, di belahan bumi yang lain.

“So in addition to telling stories of individuals, we hope this trip may in some way help to inspire a global perspective, while bringing awareness to the challenges that we all need to tackle together.”

Do visit the site, or follow @humansofny on Instagram, because it’s do interesting and inspiring. Oh, see also the Singapore version of Human of NY on http://humansofsg.com/ or @humansofsingapore on Instagram. And don’t forget its Indonesian (I mean Jakartans) version too on wearejakarta.com

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