The_Human_Condition_Homepage

The Human Condition’s Squarespace Website

Argentinian photographer Rodrigo Llauro and Australian filmmaker and writer Natalia Cartney created The Human Condition as a platform for exploring and documenting diverse communities ranging from the vintage automobile subculture of Biloxi, Mississippi to the indigenous tribes of Peru. As our world becomes increasingly global, The Human Condition shines light not only on the value of our differences but also on the essential core that ties together all of humanity.

Whether they are celebrating the beauty of the Indian Holi festival or opening an ethical and moral dialogue about cockfighting in the Peruvian Amazon, Llauro and Cartney display an unfaltering cultural sensitivity. They used Squarespace to build a website that showcases their without distracting from the potency of their message. Creating their own site allowed them to focus on what really matters: giving voice to peoples throughout the world. Without having to worry about complex coding, Llauro and Cartney are ready to carve out the time for their travels. We spoke to Llauro about the new site.

Project_Before_01

Project_After_01

Could you tell us a bit about The Human Condition and your mission?
“The Human Condition is a project that started as a way of sharing the world, with the world. I have always been fascinated by the diversity of culture in this planet while political geography has always seemed arbitrary and meaningless to me. It amazes me how people consciously separate themselves fearing that relating to other cultures may be a threat to their own cultural identity.

“As part of Generation Y, I cannot help but to be concerned and affected by globalization. Our world is becoming smaller by the day, but many cling-on to cultural separatism believing it necessary for self-preservation. It is time for us to protect traditions, cosmovisions, values and ideals of all cultures by acknowledging and appreciating them while still promoting a free exchange of ideas.

“With this in mind, Natalia Cartney and I began this project to evidence the identity of different communities through their events, activities or everyday life. We hope to help people find that common ground among humans. Love, happiness, excitement, friendship, loneliness, fear, sadness, a sense of community; these are all needs and feelings that people share, be it a monk in Tibet, a Yagua aboriginal in the Amazon rainforest or an office worker in Sydney, Australia. Hopefully, The Human Condition will help us step out of our little cocoons and awaken our sense of wonder, curiosity and empathy towards our fellow human beings.”

About_Before_01

About_After_01

What were you looking for in a website design?
“I was looking for something clean, modern, minimalist and that was easy to navigate as to not distract the viewer from the images and the work.”

The new site also places special emphasis on your video work, and a video is featured prominently on your homepage. Was it easy to upload and format these videos?
“It was quite easy to embed videos from Vimeo. All you need is the link, and Squarespace does the rest. It automatically searches for the title, description and it even shows the thumbnail!”

Project_Before_02

Project_After_02

Did you have any frustrations with your old site? In what ways did Squarespace help to alleviate some of those problems?
“Well, the previous site was made with WordPress, and although it was great template, it was sometimes cumbersome to work with. Uploading new projects, making new pages or new sections was often hard work and always a threat to the overall structure of the site whenever something went wrong. I feel that Squarespace’s user friendly interface will allow me to forget about coding, designing and updating my site so I can concentrate more on my projects.”

What template did you choose and why? Did you customize anything?
“I chose AVENUE as the template for the site since it seemed like a very appropriate design for photography. I am still customizing the position and size of textboxes and images; however, I did not inject or plan to inject any custom code.”

In what ways does your new site complement the mission and aesthetic of The Human Condition?
“As the project matures, so should its image. I believe the new design is cleaner and more objective. Also, The Human Condition will be working with a lot more video, and this new design feels more comfortable for the viewer.”

How long did it take you to build your site? Did you find the platform intuitive and easy to use?
“It only took me a couple of days to have a working site. The platform was very intuitive and easy to use. I continue to tweak it and customize it so I can have it the way I like it, but the first version of the site was up in about two days!”

Contributors_Before_01

Contributors_After_01

What have been some of the advantages to building your own site?
“The freedom to choose my own design, being able to work on it at any time and at my own rate, learning, and having more control over my work.”

What made Squarespace a good fit for you?
“The intuitive and hassle-free interface really helps. Photo projects take a long time to complete, edit, and polish. Publishing them on the web shouldn’t delay the process even more. Squarespace seems to allow me to forget most of the hassles of that last step in the process.”

Squarespace is a Feature Shoot sponsor.

Discover More