Michael Warren exhibited his project “Somebodies” this past weekend at the TEDx conference in Boston. TEDx is an individual initiative based on the TED conferences that bring together people in the community to share ideas and collaborations. Warren’s photographs were displayed for the conference’s participants to view before they began the panel discussions.

“Somebodies” is Warren’s ongoing photographic project about people and the stuff they love. The people featured were asked to bring something—living, dead, or somewhere in between—that has a significant meaning to them and to tell the story of their relationship with it.  For example, a man explains how now that his wife has passed away, the Kleenexes that she used to leave around the house no longer annoy him but rather remind him of her.

Warren’s photographs were chosen for TEDx Boston as everyone  featured is from the New England area. The exhibition was a chance for him to meet new people interested in sharing their story for the project. Warren hopes to expand the project to include over 200 people.

See more of Michael Warren’s photography here.

“Everyone has stuff they care or obsess about,” states Michael Warren. He asks people to bring their most treasured objects, dead, alive, or somewhere in-between for his “Somebodies” project. The only requirement for the objects is that they are able to be carried by hand. The results run the gamut – a boy brings his favorite toys, a father brings used tissues of his late wife, and a sculptor brings a mysteriously formed rock. Each week on Warren’s “Somebodies” blog a new portrait will be posted with that person’s object of value. The chosen objects give insight into each person as the viewer learns about what makes the objects so precious.

Pictured above:

“Hi I’m Lisa

The trash that I’ve brought today is from the beaches of Newport, Middletown and Portsmouth Rhode Island. It shouldn’t be there so I pick it up.”

Tidbit:
This is the also the area of the state in which I live. I became passionate about the trash when I became involved with the Surfrider Foundation in Rhode Island.

My name is Ayden

I am 6 years old.
Today I brought some of my Bakugans.
I don’t know why I like them, I just do.

Thank you.

My name is Ron and today I brought Kleenexes of my late wife Lisa.

The joke that we had, (which really wasn’t a joke) was the fact that she was always blowing her nose and leaving the Kleenexes all over the place. I’d find them in the bed, on the bed, in the sofa, and on the sofa. She’d just blow her nose and leave the Kleenex and I would always complain, “Don’t you know what a wastebasket looks like?”

One time she said, “Well one of these days I’m not going to be around and you’re going to find one of these Kleenex and you are going to feel sorry for giving me such a hard time about them.”

Ironically, that was the case, because Lisa died suddenly of septic shock.

After she died, I was going through some of her bathrobes and found these Kleenexes. I just laughed because I remembered the conversation we had and I never thought that she would die.

When something like this happens you just want to keep things. Anything.

It’s weird because since she was cremated I couldn’t get a lock of her hair. I have some of her hairbrushes with a little of her hair. I actually cleaned the bathtub that was clogged, so I have a ‘clog’ of her hair.

But the Kleenexes are the only things that really I know she touched on this planet so I keep them.

It’s strange, but what can you do?”

Tidbit:

The young girl the picture is our daughter Kiki. She was only three when she lost her mom.

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If Warren had to choose one object, it would be a wisteria bloom from his back porch. “After 18 years of never producing flowers, the tree finally decided to bloom this spring,” explains Warren. View more of Michael Warren’s “Somebodies” project.

Michael Warren was on hand to witness some of the shenanigans going on at the Summer Redneck Games in Dublin, Georgia. Warren has always been curious about his subjects and passionate about telling the stories of real people. One of his eye-catching images of a woman being baptized in mud was chosen as a winner in the Unpublished category of the Communication Arts 2009 Photography Annual.