A group of five students from Oxford university have come together to create a Humans of Oxford Facebook page, dedicated to photographing people around the city and asking them to say something about various topics.
The twenty-something students all read at Wadham College and are either finalists or graduate next year. They were inspired by the original Humans of New York photoblog and launched their version in March.
We went into it not really knowing what to expect and it became a lot more popular a lot quicker than we thought. It's funny how some photos get so much popularity and it's really interesting to see which will become so popular.
Wright said that at least two images had been particularly successful. The first, posted on 21 May, was of a shopkeeper who previously lived in Afghanistan.
The second was a photograph of Tom de Wilton, studying for a Doctorate in Philosophy, who told Humans of Oxford that he was debating of whether to come back and finish his degree or build a treehouse in Thailand.
Wright told BuzzFeed that although the students started by contacting people they thought might be interesting, they soon gained confidence and started to ask people in the street to take part.
Now they've gained confidence and are happy to walk around the streets of Oxford with their DSLRs and ask people to take part.
But the students are careful in their approach and tend to approach people individually rather than in a big group. "Normally we just go up to talk to people first rather than just pouncing on them," Wright told BuzzFeed.
The Facebook page now has almost 4,000 likes but the group don’t have any major goals. Instead Wright said: "We want to keep going, build the popularity, build the momentum and get people talking."
And for those who hope to get spotted by the students, Wright said there were no particularly tips. "It's really just luck, being in the right place at the right time," she said.
You can follow the group's progress and see the rest of the photos here.
