“We are defined by our stories. We present the story that we tell ourselves, or that we tell others, as our portrait.”
— Hugo Crosthwaite, artist and first-prize winner of the 2019 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition

What is one moment that changed you forever? Who has been your greatest influence? What moments of joy or struggle have you faced during the pandemic? Museum visitors are invited to tell their stories and have their portraits taken with the storytelling organization Humans of St. Louis on the weekend of September 25–26.

A selection of these “photostories” will be shared on both the Museum’s and Humans of St. Louis’s social media platforms, and several will be printed and displayed at Washington University’s Danforth University Center. Inspired by The Outwin: American Portraiture Today, these portraits celebrate the lives and stories of who we are in St. Louis.

This drop-in program is free and does not require registration, but space is limited. Interview sessions will last approximately thirty minutes.

About Humans of St. Louis

Humans of St. Louis (HOSTL) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that shares photographic portraiture and first-person stories from people in and around St. Louis. Its mission is to leverage storytelling through conversational interviews and portrait photography that highlight local needs, issues, and experiences from people in the region and to share these “photostories” with a broader audience to promote social good, civic pride, and community engagement. Since its inception in 2014, HOSTL has told more than 3,000 stories from the streets of St. Louis and throughout Missouri. For more information, visit www.humansofstl.org.