Located inside the downtown Salt Lake City Public Library, Amplify Utah’s “In Their Words” exhibit is a storytelling project rooted in the belief that every person in our community has a story worth hearing and sharing.
The photography exhibit offers a new method of speaking with the unhoused community. As guests look at the people in the photographs and read about the circumstances they experienced — whether it’s a tragedy or a simple turn of fortune — the exhibit gives a serene and hopeful feeling, as well as a sense of community.
The photos — some in black and white, others in full color — all show us how we are all human, and that we all toe the line as the cost of living continues to rise. It reminds viewers that we need to treat each other with a touch of humility.
Kelly Hannah, one of the two photographers at the event who took the horizontal perspectives, described his experience.
“Sometimes it’s tricky at first [building rapport], but with a friendly ‘Hello, my name is Kelly, can I come talk to you for a minute?’ — most times an invitation in and starting a dialogue — most of the folks that I chatted with, the comments I got were, ‘Thank you for the time,’” said Hannah.
Steve Speckman, another photographer, captured images from a vertical perspective.
“I was a journalist for a long time. I was used to going in and getting stories on deadline. [The deadline] doesn’t work that way with these [subjects]; you have to build trust. It’s a long, drawn-out process that you have to be committed to, and I enjoyed that process. I enjoyed sitting down with people and getting their stories,” Speckman said.
With a goal of boosting the voices of communities that are not normally heard in local media, Amplify Utah is firm in its mission to treat marginalized communities with humility and respect. Olivia Webster, a graduate student when the project began in late 2023, kept this mission in mind when she came up with the methodology for the project.
“The point, really, is to create a model for storytelling for disenfranchised communities that was ethical and very focused on humanization and support,” Webster said. “Anything that was hyper community-based I looked at and I studied.”
Webster was adamant that the exhibit be credited to Marcie Young Cancio, the head of Amplify Utah and the progenitor for the exhibit.
“This [project] took time,” said Young Cancio. “We spent about a year and a half spending time with the community, getting to know folks, taking photos — wanting to make sure that we weren’t just going in, taking a photo, asking a question and then leaving and they never see us again.”
All of the Amplify Utah exhibit contributors remarked that they still kept in contact with as many of the unhoused people that they spoke to as they could. They didn’t want them to feel used and put under a microscope for the people at the exhibit.
Young Cancio remarked that many unhoused people are used to media personalities coming into their communities, taking what they need from them and leaving, making every relationship feel transactional; she and the others with Amplify Utah didn’t want to do that.
In fact, one of the people featured in the exhibit, Benjamin, was also in attendance at the exhibit opening. He was in good spirits as he viewed the other subjects, some of whom he knew personally.
“I like what they’ve done with it, how they’ve shown our uniqueness, and being able to take time to understand people who are homeless and people who have had a lot of life struggles and being able to just … be understanding and not judgmental,” Benjamin said.
Benjamin leads a morning Tai Chi class for the community and for people experiencing homelessness. He said it’s a huge part of his life and has helped him to resocialize. He remarked that seeing the exhibition was beautiful, humanizing and was “what we needed.”
The “In Their Words” exhibit will move you to tears and fill you with hope for a better future. Hopefully, you will come out of it with a greater understanding of what it means to care for your fellow human, even if it’s just a simple conversation.
The exhibit can be found in the Lower Urban Room of the downtown Salt Lake City Public Library, where it will be displayed until Friday, July 18, after which it will continue to travel to schools, businesses and other venues across the region. Take a chance to get yourself a good book and read about the incredible and resilient people who strive every day for a better tomorrow.
