NOLAbeings

Multimedia artist Claire Bangser created NOLAbeings as a portrait-based story project that marries image and text. Inspired by the Humans of NY project, it stems from the belief that we can all learn from one anothers’ stories. Primarily featured on Instagram (and tumblr), Claire meets people in coffee shops, grocery stores, living rooms, sidewalks, and learns something about each individual through a snapshot conversation and image. After discovering and falling in love with the project, editors at NolaVie asked to post a weekly roundup of her most visually and narratively stimulating photos.

“I cook. They call me Cooky. Pots and pans. I cook my butt on and off, because it ain’t going nowhere. I love okra. Smothered okra. Okra gumbo. Filé gumbo. Yakmein. Everybody says I’m a beast in chef-ing. […] I do parties: stuffed eggs, deviled eggs, stuff like that. I love to cook, that’s my passion. Cooking and dancing.”

“We were married in Massachusetts two years ago and we had to go to Massachusetts to give birth to them so she could be on the birth certificate [as their other mother]. This is legal recognition that we are a family.”

“It’s amazing that they’re going to have their entire conscious lives with this being legal.”

“My son was the first person to text me: ‘Dad, you won! You won. You won.’ It is amazing.”