A Brooklyn photographer has set out to explore how glitter and confetti can change people, spending two years photographing strangers covered in the festive dust.
Photographer Jelena Aleksich remembers finding confetti in her coat pocket from an OK Go concert at the Bowery Ballroom that she had attended days before and the joy she felt at the show came rushing back. It got Aleksich thinking: What does confetti bring to people?
“I started researching every single photo online to see how it’s been used,” she said. This is how “The Confetti Project,” a now two-year-long photo and storytelling project, was born, exploring how strangers share a common thread in celebrating life. Aleksich is now setting up shop in Williamsburg’s Artist & Fleas for a free photo shoot this weekend, in search of more subjects for her project.
Inspired by the photographer of “Humans of New York,” Brandon Stanton, Aleksich wants to tell the stories of the subjects in her images, which show people covered in falling glitter and confetti. The profiles are meant to capture a side of a person not typically seen on a day-to-day basis, Aleksich said.
“People come in and come with the stress of the day on their shoulders,” she said. “They’re given this space where they don’t have to think. They can play and be in the moment.”
Aleksich has profiled and photographed over 200 participants for her project. She shoots in various locations around the city. For each, she typically takes about two hours, and includes both a photoshoot and an intensive Q&A session, asking participants to answer questions including “Why do you get out of bed in the morning? and “What do you celebrate the most in life?”
The pop-up at Artists & Fleas will be a condensed version of the typical two-hour session, Alekisch said. Attendees will be able to “pre-glitter” themselves, writing answers to the common questions on a wall and then getting a confetti picture snapped by Aleksich.
The photos, which Aleksich hopes to publish in a coffee table book, are then paired with profiles of what the subjects celebrate most in life — such as overcoming loss. Aleksich’s father died from cancer a year ago, giving her project even more personal meaning.
“It’s given the project an even more in-depth meaning,” she said. “I’ve found gratitude in this grief.”
Those interested in attending can head to Artists & Fleas, at 40 N. Seventh St., from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Saturday and Sunday. Free reservations are sold out, but 30 minutes of each hour is dedicated to walk-ins. For more information, visit eventbrite.com
