An Athens Autumn: The Word Project

What kind of story can someone tell with only one word?

Artist Ryan LaFever has been asking this question through an innovative collaborative photography project he started during the pandemic:          The Word Project.

Ryan is in the process of compiling a series of portraits featuring people writing out a single word of their choosing, in any medium of their choosing.

This idea is meant to be both an art piece and a kind of social experiment exploring what kind of conclusion one can draw about someone’s character from just a single word. He says, “I think of this as an opportunity for others to be an artist in their own right and express themselves with a single word, written out in any manner, with any background or environment; it’s all up to an individual how they want to represent themselves.”

“We all have our first word and we’ll all have final words; what word would people speak at this moment in their lives?"

The ultimate hope of this project is to gather enough portraits to self-publish a photography book. Should that be the case, participants will have the opportunity to have their portrait in the book, along with their photo being featured in an art opening here at the Athens Public Library at the time of the book launch.

The one word can be whatever the individual wants, with the only restrictions being:

• No proper nouns

• No hyphenated words

• The word must have a Google result. (Meaning slang words and profanity are acceptable, it simply can not be made up.)

An assortment of materials for writing out your word of choice will be provided but if you have specific materials you would like to use to write out your word, please plan to bring those with you.

From 12-5pm come to the Athens Library with your word to get your portrait taken.

Artist Bio:

Ryan LaFever is a graduate of Columbus College of Art and Design and is a practicing artist in a wide variety of media, alongside his day job as a multimedia designer at Nutt Heads Games. His word project was featured in an article by Columbus Underground.

You can find more about Ryan and his current portfolio of works at https://stuffryandoes.org/