Later this week, the student wall on the first floor of Perkins Library will display a new exhibit—one that showcases not students’ achievements, but their insecurities.
Part of the What I Be project by photographer Steve Rosenfield, the exhibit features pictures of students with phrases describing their doubts or problems written across their bodies. In a five-day visit to Duke before spring break, Rosenfield took more than 70 portraits, meeting with each subject for 45 minutes to discuss their insecurities and decide the best way to portray them in the photograph.
“They’re there for the same reason—everyone’s there to share something,” Rosenfield said. “We all want to share something.”
Accompanying the portraits are statements by the subjects—finishing the sentence “I am not my…” to show that their vulnerabilities do not necessarily define them. Rosenfield noted in a meet-and-greet session with the project’s participants that everything about What I Be was designed to make people uncomfortable, from the incorrect grammar of the project’s title to the lack of smiles in the photographs.
What I Be was brought to Duke as a joint venture by Blue Devils United and Duke Student Government after sophomore Keizra Mecklai, a DSG senator for equity and outreach, saw the project at a conference.
“I was like, ‘This means something, this feels like something we need to bring to Duke,’” Mecklai said.
She noted that What I Be provides a uniquely open and visible avenue for conversations about issues such as race, gender, sexuality and socioeconomic status—in comparison to programs such as student-led retreat Common Ground, which discusses similar topics but with only a select group of people each semester.
The project has granted the issues visibility even beyond Duke's campus. In addition to being displayed in Perkins, the photographs have also been uploaded to Rosenfield's Facebook page, which has more than 20,000 fans. Many of the portraits have garnered likes and comments from not only members of the Duke community but from people around the world.
"Statistics are thrown around all the time, like that one in four women in college is sexually assaulted...but there are people you know that are affected by that," Mecklai said. "I think it did start conversations and change things for people who had never seen those as real issues because they didn’t have faces to them."
Although students were required to fill out an application to sign up for What I Be, participants were granted spots on a first-come, first-served basis rather than on an evaluation of their applications. Interest in the project surpassed expectations, creating a 65 student waitlist, Mecklai said, adding that they will hopefully be able to repeat the project next year.
Sophomore Daniel Kort, president of Blue Devils United, noted that the project helps to counter the image of "effortless perfection" that is often associated with Duke.
“Outsiders to Duke, and even people inside Duke, might stereotype a Duke student as this effortlessly perfect, academic powerhouse-social butterfly,” Kort said. “I think it’s really important to show faces for whom this is not true.”
Mecklai noted that the power of the project lies not only in its ability to start large-scale conversation on difficult topics, but also in the way that it empowers the individuals who participate.
Rosenfield began the project in 2010, after leaving a corporate job in order to pursue interests he found more fulfilling. He has since taken photographs for What I Be in high schools, universities, churches and places across the country.
“I know I can’t help everybody and fix everything, I know it’s not my job to do that,” Rosenfield said. “I just try to talk to each person individually.”
Vice President for Student Affairs Larry Moneta—the only non-student to participate in the project at Duke—noted the project's potential for important reflection at both the individual and community level.
“The time spent in dialogue helping me focus on my insecurities and discomforts were extremely powerful,” Moneta wrote in an email Monday.
Moneta chose to write "Did I Make a Difference?" across his face and right hand, with the statement "I am not my career."
“To do the project is to formally and aggressively make yourself vulnerable and present your insecurities,” Mecklai said.
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