Thomas Wilson
In 2013 I Joined the Peace Corps. I signed a 27 month contract. The Peace Corps tends gets a bad rap, but I think it's an alright organization. I moved from Long Island to Malawi to teach Earth Science at a high school to meet some new people. I had never been to Africa, but I had done a fair amount of traveling in college.
Fast-forward to 2014 when I actually started my Levels series. After about a year of living in Malawi, I had shot a lot of things that interested me as I moved around the country. Bike taxis, hand painted storefronts, and minibusses with religious bumper stickers. It wasn't until 2014 ,that I started my Levels series.
A few of my friends and I would always stay at the same hostel each time we went into the city (Blantyre) to run errands. The hostel was called The Oriental and it had an incredible balcony that overlooked the busiest traffic circle in Blantyre. On the balcony, we would pass the time by playing a game where we would point out the person carrying the most stuff on their head. It was turned into a game by giving each object a value. One object was a level 1, two objects was a level 2 and so on...
The rules got more complicated the more we played. For instance, a person carrying a bowl of peanuts on their head isn't a level 578; it's a level 1. 1 Bowl of peanuts = level 1. But, hypothetically, if 578 peanuts were individually balanced one on top of the other, then that would be a true Level 578. Makes sense?
I started bringing my camera to the balcony during morning and evening rush hours to take photos of people carrying things. I started posting photos of the game on my Instagram and it basically snowballed from there. I moved back to New York in 2015, made a poster of the Levels series and gave them out to my friends.
Now, I look for people carrying things on their heads in Brooklyn. I've been pleasantly surprised. I mostly see Level 1's in New York but I've seen the occasional level 2; almost always laundry. I recently started an Instagram called @levvels where I've been posting photos that I took in Malawi and NY. I’m also trying to get people to contribute the best levels that they've come across by submitting images to me. We need more community involvement!
images courtesy of THOMAS WILSON
interview ASHLEY MUNNS
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