Category: Features

We chatted to 22-year-old Paula Akpan co-founder of The I’m Tired Project, about how she and Harriet Evans started the project, how they hope to make a difference and how you can get involved… 

“I’m tired of people saying I inherited my queerness…
Photo credit: Harriet Evans and Paula Akpan
Photo editing: Harriet Evans

The initial inspiration for the campaign was the ‘Free the Nipple’ movement, however, after asking around some groups within our university, for example our feminist society, there was not much interest in a project like this. We assumed this was because students our age are about to start their job hunt and didn’t want to have their naked breasts plastered over the internet. Yet, we both wanted to do something which ‘makes a difference’ because there are so many groups which have a large following, (not to name any names) but that do not use their following for any sort of ‘good’. For example, they don’t share petitions, protests, or take on any project, which could make a change or even simply highlight social problems currently being faced in society.

“I’m tired of working two jobs to make the salary of one man…
Photo credit: Robert Olsson and Hudson Valley Centre for Contemporary Art
Editing credit: Robert Olsson

Harriet and I were bouncing ideas off of each other and thought that instead we could have quotations of some sort written on people’s backs. This way its anonymous if the person chooses, as you never see anyone’s face, but also synonymous with the idea that someone has been labelled by society. We kept discussing what sort of quotes we could have written on the backs, and eventually it came to things that we are tired of: tired of being ‘the angry black woman,’ tired of being told ‘I’ve never slept with a black girl’, tired of being called ‘bossy’ etc. and thus ‘I’m Tired’ was born! Finally, we got the idea for the ‘blurb’ that accompanies each picture from Humans of New York, we thought it was great to have a picture that told a story on its own, but also important for the person who’s sharing their story to be able to explain their lived experiences and why it is important to them.

“I’m tired of being represented by loud close-minded fools…
Photo credit: Robert Olsson and Hudson Valley Centre for Contemporary Art
Photo editing: Robert Olsson

Making a difference for us, in the short term, is really about highlighting the stereotypes and micro-aggressions that are still faced by society. We’re so often told that many social problems are disappearing: homophobia, racism, sexism, victim blaming, but our subjects and both myself and Harriet are still facing problems like these on a daily basis. For us, if this project changes even one person’s mind about the preconceived notions they might be holding, or inspires someone to ask more questions, or even for someone to feel more confident in themselves and think ‘hey, there’s someone else who goes through this too, I’m not alone’, then we would be extremely happy.

“I’m tired of being told to ‘let go’ of not knowing my birth parents…
Photo credit: Robert Olsson and Hudson Valley Centre for Contemporary Art
Editing credit: Robert Olsson

If you’re interested in getting involved in The I’m Tired Project, then contact Paula or Harriet through Facebook, Twitter or email theimtiredproject@gmail.com. The project is ongoing and there are a series of projects coming up as well as photos relating social groups that have not yet been covered by the pictures up so far.