Definitions are fickle things to pin on an individual. They trick people to believe everybody must fall under a specific stereotype and obey what is expected from that classification. Ken Hassell has devoted his work to breaking the formula that society begs him to abide by. He motivates others to do the same.
If asked, Hassell cannot define himself; he is white male from a middle-class family. He grew up in a suburb of Chicago. He is an art professor at Elon University. He photographs and studies coal-mining communities. He likes to read.
But Hassell does not consider himself a normative male. Nor does he think he is an average white person, Chicagoan or anything else. He is an individual that will never fall under a single general definition.
“You think of all the different identities,” Hassell said. “And within each one of those identities there are multiple possibilities as well. Identity is not one thing. It’s many things. We are many things. And those things are changing.”
To read more about Hassell and his search for identity, pick up next week's edition of The Pendulum.