Artist Statement
Rowan Salhi’s project, Being Merrimack, sought to examine how the students, staff, and faculty connect at Merrimack College. In a post-COVID-19 world, Salhi noticed that many of the people at Merrimack had trouble creating deep connections with one another. After this observation, the artist decided to have as many conversations as he could with the Merrimack Community in hopes of finding commonalities among their many differences. By talking to the subjects before photographing them, Salhi hoped they would feel comfortable opening up to him. Thus, when it came to photographing them, they would show their most authentic selves to the camera. Inspired by the concept of documentary photography and the Humans of New York project, he created Being Merrimack.
Dedicated to Kevin Salemme
“I’m big on empathy, it helps you realize things about yourself, sharing those emotions is how I’ve begun the journey of becoming a better person.”
- Jandeliz ‘25
“I think people would describe me as a lot more than I am. Everyone has like three different masks, one you show to the public, one you show to friends, and one you show to yourself. I think for me, the mask that only I see is a lot different than the mask that everyone else sees”
- Bryan ’25
“Right now if I were to guess, my purpose is to be happy and to help other people find their happiness. My cousin recently passed away and I think he didn’t feel like he had purpose, I want to be able to do that for him. I want to find what his purpose was and I want to find my own purpose in helping other people. I just want to make myself and others happy”
- Abriana ’23
“You can’t be stagnant in order to grow, you don’t work out a muscle by not moving it. You have to go out in the world and make mistakes. Making mistakes is the only way you can grow as a person and become better.”
- Addison ’25
“I care about how other people feel, about me and about others. I really just want everyone to get along. I think that it’s really important to treat everyone with respect you know? You get what you give and I think that’s what I try to remind myself in every aspect of school”
- Matt ’23
“I don’t like people knowing unnecessary things about me. When I meet someone I want to see who they are, I don’t really talk about myself too much.”
- Nicholas ’26
“When I was younger, I was always kind of a loner. I never hung out with anyone. Now here I am, a freshman in college and I feel like I know everyone. It’s so great! I’m really surprised at the amount of connections I’ve been able to make and the friends I have here.”
- Gavin ’26
“I’m afraid of success because you can only learn from failure”
- Ollie ’23
“Right now I’m trying to decide if I’m a kid or an adult. Sometimes I deal with a little bit of imposter syndrome because I wake up every day and go to a 9-5 job but at the same time, I feel more like a child right now than I did when I actually was one. I’m really just trying to figure out how I’m supposed to act and what I should be doing, being an adult is weird.”
- Maddie Smith, Student Involvement Coordinator
“I’ve learned something having been here and I think the first thing you have to do is listen. I don’t think that people do that a lot. In our job, we end up kind of being reactionary because we want to solve the problem, but the first thing you have to do is just listen. 98% of the issue can be solved by just having a conversation and actually hearing the person out. It’s not just ‘let me fix this issue’ it’s ‘what else is going on?’ or ‘how can I make your day better?’. It’s really just listening and I find that so fascinating.”
- Ian, Associate Director of Residence Life and Director of Royal Crest
“You have to continue to change, without change you can’t learn to be a better person. The problem is that it’s really uncomfortable to change. I meet with a lot of people in my job and a lot of them say that the hardest part about college is the change, it can feel so isolating even though everyone is doing it. They’re all just doing it differently and at their own pace. It’s about learning how to be okay with putting yourself in an uncomfortable situation and changing environment.”
- Caitie Regan, Deputy Title IX Coordinator and Assistant Dean of Students
“When I was in middle school they had me take a math placement test and I landed right at the cusp, where you could choose to go up or down. I chose to go up and my teacher told me she thought it wasn’t a good idea. She was worried I couldn’t do it. Ever since then, I’ve had a bit of a math insecurity but now I’m in Calculus Three! I definitely can’t believe how far I’ve come, I definitely didn’t think this was possible. Younger me would look at where I am now and say wow.”
- Jazlyn ‘25
