Theron Humphrey

Theron Humphrey was feeling burnt out with his work as a studio assistant and digital editor for an online retailer when he decided to photograph his ailing grandfather. After his grandfather passed away in 2010, Humphrey says, “My heart was in pieces and right then I refused to live another day living a story I wouldn’t be proud of telling.”

In 2011 Humphrey embarked on a bold storytelling project, “This Wild Idea,” a reflective documentary journey blurring the line between photography and oral history. “I’m inspired by stories; they’re celebrations of life,” he says. After raising nearly $16,000 on the crowd-funding site Kickstarter, Humphrey traversed the country, logging over 60,000 miles, to take portraits and gather audio snippets from 365 people over 365 days. National Geographic Traveler, impressed by this chronicle of ordinary Americans, named him one of its 2012 Travelers of the Year.