Telling the stories of humans in Melbourne

Humans… Melbourne has a lot of them, and many of them have incredible stories to tell.

This morning Ross and John spoke to a Chris Cincotta, a man who documents these stories.

Chris photographs and interviews people all over the city, and shares their experiences on his Facebook page, ‘Humans in Melbourne‘. He has also just released a coffee table book of the same name.

The ‘Humans in Melbourne’ Facebook page now has an impressive 168,000 followers, but it started from humble beginnings.

Chris is a self-taught photographer who learnt the skill when he was living overseas and his mum asked him to take a photo for her every day for a year.

‘I’ve got a little stall on the corner of Bourke and Swanston where I sell my photos. Basically I started doing that and people started sitting with me to tell me their life stories and I thought, “well, that makes a good Facebook page,” he said.

Ross and John asked Chris whose story he finds most inspiring.

“Koky Saly… he’s a Cambodian refugee who was born in a jail in Cambodia. He’s gone on to create an amazing business that uses old recycled material that would otherwise be in landfill in Cambodia, and he turns it into backpacks,” he said.

“I try to focus on… the great stories of humans who are doing great things in Melbourne…. I wouldn’t want to do anything else.”