What the Hell Am I Doing Here?: The 100 T-Shirt Project

If you like photographs or people, read this book. If you are curious about what people really think, read this book. It's funny. For Real.

This book blew me away. The personal and contemplative writing sets a beautiful tone for the photos. While working as a fifth grade teacher, Abram discovers that his girlfriend is cheating on him. All day long in class, he's teaching grammer, but thinking of his crumbling love life. Soon, he realizes that everyone else is probably just as distracted about something while they are going about their lives all around him as he is about his girlfriend's infidelity.He wishes that everyone's t-shirt said what they were thinking on it so we could all know what's really going on with each other.So, he sets out across New Orleans asking everyone he meets to write their deepest, most secret thoughts on a t-shirt, and then he takes a picture of them wearing the shirt. The pictures give us a glimpse of the touching, scary, hilarious, sometimes idecipherable, and often deeply sad things on peoples' minds as they walk the streets, work their restaurant jobs, sit in class in high school, drink in bars, or play in front of their houses.Every city should be blessed with a portrait this complex and caring. If only every writer could get 100 "people on the street" to open their heads and hearts the way Himelstein has done here.Superb.