“We don’t know how people live unless we go where they live, and most people cannot... I’ve worked with some young gang members, I’ve done the childhood poverty, the homelessness, all of that, and we only know how someone lives when we go where they live. And most people cannot do that... and I hope that I can bring that to people." -Michele Ashlee
“Life tosses us it’s crap and we get sidetracked or we may lose focus and we may lose motivation...So I felt that if we set the intention on why we do what we do and what kind of legacy we wanna leave behind, maybe that will — you know, it’s something to go back to when we do lose sight of that.”
-Erica Jae
Open Mic Rochester's staff photographers left us with some gems about the meaning and motivation behind their projects, how they created their photography careers and what they have coming up next.