Over the last few months, seniors Andrew Cadle and Ashley Ortizcazarin developed a book covering the wide variety of people in Minneapolis & St. Paul. Similar to Brandon Stanton’s ‘Humans of New York,’ ‘Minne’aPaul’ captures different profiles of people living in the two cities. For those that aren’t familiar with HNY, the book compiles pictures of unique residents of New York City.  Additionally, each picture comes with a small piece of information like a story, their background or even a quirky trait.

The project initially started nearly a year ago when Ortizcazarin found inspiration in HNY. “When I went back to look at [Humans of New York], I realized Brandon Stanton’s whole purpose of creating ‘Humans of New York’ was to show the diversity of New York City. I thought it would be a really fun idea to do that for Minneapolis,” said Ortizcazarin.  

Once the idea transformed into a project, Ashley invited Andrew Cadle and her father into the creation process. Each person used their own skill set to make contributions to the project. “Ashley’s dad, Ricardo, gave us a lot of quote ideas. Ashley took the pictures and I controlled the page work – the two gave me feedback,” said Cadle.  

The primary goal of this book was to shed light on the differences between the individuals in the community. It was also a goal that readers recognize these differences and can empathize with people profiled in the book. Ortizcazarin recognized a degree of racism in the attitudes of people in both our school and the general community,  and she attempted to address this with Minnea’Paul  “We almost make it a joke because it’s easier to be funny than to understand [that racism] is an issue”, said Ashley Ortizcazarin.  

In order for this goal to be met, OrtizCazarin and Cadle conducted surveys and interviewed many different individuals. When school ended last June, Cadle and OrtizCazarin had more time and  opportunities to interview the unique variety of Minnesotans. “We found a lot of different cultures; we went to Pride, the festival, and we found different types of people there. We purposely went to different events to get variety”, said Ortizcazarin.

Ashley and Andrew were sponsored by Cazarin Interactive, a web design and marketing agency based in the outskirts of Minneapolis. The copyright of Minne’aPaul belongs to Cazarin Interactive (www.cazarin.com). A copy of the book can be purchased at www.book.cazarin.com.