“Humans in the .raw” is a photography project combining critical thinking, privacy laws, and photography. Here is the creation of “Humans”.
“Humans in the .raw” began as a birthday trip to New York City in 2023. R3NYAS found that the city was too populous for a photo without people in it, so she set her focuses on highlighting the human aspects and culture of the city. R3NYAS has always found people-watching of interest, and she enjoys the ambiguous feeling of the unknown. She had the desire to capture moments between people that made her feel, which was often people reacting to each other or another element in (or off) the screen. At this point in time, “Humans” was nothing more than an idea to capture people’s reactions.
This vague goal allowed R3NYAS to collect more photos throughout various spaces and times, and “Humans” had developed itself further. The main purpose of this project was now to capture humans when they are the most authentic: when they think no one is looking. A 300 mm zoom camera was R3NYAS’ best friend, and the main reason this project could exist. By 2024, the project was templated as an Adobe InDesign document. The original idea was supposed to be an art book, something that a twenty-something year old would have on their coffee table in their apartment.
Each page was supposed to have a photo of someone and a story. It was not determined if the story was supposed to relate to R3NYAS’ travel/why she was there to witness the captured moment, or if the story was supposed to relate to the subject. By this time, R3NYAS had three prominent photo sets from Philadelphia and New York City to add to this.
After graduating with her bachelor’s in 2024, R3NYAS had plans to return to New York City. With a specific focus to capture moments between people that make her feel, R3NYAS kept slowly adding to the photo collection and the InDesign document, but completing “Humans” was not at the forefront of her mind. It wasn’t until the summer of 2025 that “Humans” really took shape.
The biggest question over the last few years was where the project would live. It currently resided in a mixture of external hard drives and SD cards, but R3NYAS knew it was destined for more. Scrapping the idea of a physical book, R3NYAS used the premise from an older project and wanted to design an interactive website. The InDesign document shifted from acting as a template for an art book and turned into the beginning of a digital flipbook. The idea was to have the website act as an interactive book, similar to the art book but digitised. The reasoning for this was simple: as an author with zero prior publications, an art book from a no name would likely not be a publisher’s first choice. Additionally, a photography book featuring other people without consent waivers would prove to be an issue. The original book template wsa instead uploaded into an HTML flipbook website creator, but the integration was tested and ultimately failed so the idea had to be scrapped.
That brought R3NYAS back to square one. So what does she do with a collection of photos of people, taken specifically without their consent? So far, the limits were monetisation and going through an official publisher, which led back to using a website to host this collection. R3NYAS formulated “Humans” to be a portfolio organised by state. This eliminated a static template, and would ensure that this project could be continuously added to. The website was built and hosted on WordPress, which caused two main issues. The first issue was minor—WordPress is a blog site and this was not a blog. This issue was resolved by redesigning and choosing various WordPress templates that suited the purpose. The second issue was not as easily resolved.
In July of 2025, the domain name was purchased outside of WordPress. WordPress places a two month hold on DNS transfers, which meant that there would be a waiting period while the website was designed. The website was ready to go live in July, but the DNS issue would take us to September 2nd of 2025. On this day, R3NYAS successfully transferred the domain. While running some final quality checks before going live, R3NYAS changed her mind and scrapped the entire website. WordPress didn’t serve the project to the best of its abilities, and the website itself wasn’t satisfactory by design. On the same day, “Humans” was then rebuilt on Adobe Portfolio, which left the same issue from the beginning of July. The DNS was now held by WordPress, and that meant that there would be another two month hold to transfer the domain back. Yup, that’s right. Four months of waiting for WordPress to accept or release a DNS. Thanks WordPress.
During the second two month waiting period, a few things happened to “Humans”. First, the collection was greatly expanded. In just two years, the collection included subjects from three additional states (Massachusetts, Connecticut, and Washington D.C.)! These photos were collected through wanders or random moments where R3NYAS happened to be holding a camera. During this time, on a trip to New York City on Valentine’s Day, a photo of R3NYAS in action was procured. This is the only photo of R3NYAS on “Humans”.
The second change that occurred was the name and tagline.
The original title and tagline was “Humanisms in the .raw, an expedition to catch humans in their most intimate form: when they think no one is looking”.
The name change was solely a typo that was not caught until 11/29/2025, when the behind-the-scenes is being written. In all of R3NYAS’ memory, she could have sworn it was “humans”, not “humanism”. It is assumed that when the domain was being purchased, the “ism” part of human was forgotten or misremembered, and it was not quality checked until this moment.
The third and most prominent change was the intent and purpose. The website was originally a creative journey that helped R3NYAS explore the world and discover more life, but there were a few logistics that appeared with time. The biggest concern was how the public would respond to this project. At a base level, it would be more concerning if ethical concerns weren’t raised after the project’s release (if someone saw a stranger taking photos of others from afar, it isn’t unfair judgement to question them), so an explanation had to be created. This change was the most administrative and academic.
It was hard to come up with an explanation for viewers who aren’t privy to R3NYAS or her life, and the reasoning “I just really like photography and capturing emotions” didn’t seem solid. Additionally, creating a 30 minute op-ed explaining the loneliness, isolation, and traumas that R3NYAS experienced that draws her to others seemed like a futile task, because who the fuck would read it?
R3NYAS wanted to make this project thought-provoking and emotional, and so far the former was missing. Instead of turning internally for the purpose of the project, R3NYAS focused on giving viewers a reason to visit the website (besides appreciating it for the art). The next question R3NYAS had to ask herself was, “if I were just a random person who found a random website online, why would I want to explore it?”
The website’s purpose was workshopped for a few more weeks before ultimately turning into the “Privacy Statement”. This section started as a brief outline of privacy laws and why “Humans” was creepy but completely legal. As this part was being researched and written, it slowly shifted into focusing on the idea that “yes, this project and website is legal. But should it have been created at all?”
This draft lasted less than a day, and the privacy statement was edited once again but focused on education and urging critical thinking. Building upon the prior hypothetical question, the hypothetical answer is “no, showcasing photographed people who are unaware of being the subject should have been created. But it was, and it is legal to do so. Now think about the millions of people who can do the same exact thing, with more malicious intentions.“
“Humans” originally purpose was to showcase the various humanisms found on R3NYAS’ wanders, but throughout the past couple of years, it evolved into a hybrid of art, education, and critical thinking. The privacy statement added a warning to think about the surveillance state, privacy laws, and the cultural normalization that one is always being watched. While “Humans” is an ongoing project with no end in sight, additions to the photo collection may be slower.
R3NYAS’ hope for “Humans” is that someone will eventually come across the website through circumstance and will gain knowledge or inspiration.
Click here to visit the website.
R3NYAS 
Leave a comment