Ok, picture this.

You’ve got a camera, 24 hours and placed in some of the most intimate, personal spaces capturing a day in the life of various creatives, hustlers, and artists. Sounds fun, right?

Ennis Chung would know. She’s a Canadian photographer based currently in NY and the creator behind “The Realest Project” which features 24 hours with Ashley Outrageous, Cbass from Motion Family, Chuck Inglish, Ellie Sweetz, and Jonas Leon straight from her POV and camera.

What I dig about this project is the raw simplicity of it, still frames of perhaps some of the most organic moments, unfiltered, unrestrained.

As Ennis puts it, “My project is about showing everything that doesn’t make it on the gram.”

She was kind enough to share the catalyst and the purpose behind the project, some production (challenges), photos from each adventure and more. Read on.

Tell us where the inspiration for The Realest Project sprung from?

Realest was a relatively easy evolution from what I was already doing in my every day life, into a project. I found myself spending time with a lot of new faces I was meeting last year, most of whom were somehow involved in hip hop. And since I carry my camera around and shoot my day to day interactions regardless, turning that process into a creative project was natural. I made the time frame 24 hours because to me that’s a good sneak peak into someone else’s life, not too long that it becomes too repetitive, but not too short that you miss out on little details.

At the end of the day, the true inspiration came from just being around the people I now shoot with. I’m extremely thankful that I have the opportunity to be able to witness and experience their energy and work first hand.

Creating this was quite the process I’m sure with a lot of moving parts and planning. What would you say was your biggest challenge?

 Scheduling in all its glory haha. Whether it’s coordinating with people to shoot, to have meetings, to plan events, to make the Kickstarter… This has been the most collaborative process I’ve spearheaded so far. Opening myself up to work with so many different people has been a learning curve. I’m doing this all on my own and also working around the schedule of my regular design job, so yeah, scheduling has been the biggest challenge.

Share some of the process in selecting the 5 creators for volume one. What attracted you to them?

The five people in volume one are Ashley Outrageous, Cbass from Motion Family, Chuck Inglish, Ellie Sweetz, and Jonas Leon. I picked this group for many reasons but some of them are: Between the five of them, they all have very different careers, amazing personalities, different locations and age range but all are very successful in their own right. Also the fact that I’m trying to bring in a more equal women to men ratio because as many know, this is a very male dominated world.

What are you hoping that people will take away from this project?

I have so many messages I always feel like I need to pick one when I get asked this question haha. ONE of my biggest messages is a commentary on being anti-social media. It’s not that I have anything against social, but I’m trying to bring focus to the fact that it is a curated platform, and usually there’s so much that gets filtered out. In Hip-Hop especially, there is usually a common stereotype on the type of content that gets put out there. My project is about showing everything that doesn’t make it on the gram.

Where we can get connected to The Realest Project and you

Please learn more about Realest through my Kickstarter! I’m trying to raise enough money to print the first run of my quarterly photo journal and I only have until Sept 21 to meet my goal! #RealestKickstarter

But also you can connect with me on Instagram (@ennischung) I’m on there frequently posting updates, random shit from my life and whatnot.

Show some love and support ya’ll! (Kickstarter link: http://bit.ly/RealestK )

Ennis like tennis, a five-foot Canadian photographer trying to make life and art happen in NY. Living unapologetically and spreading positivity.