It is extraordinary that a teenager with a camera could captivate and unite a student body of over 4,000 people.

However, Munim Shah did exactly that, using beautifully composed photographs and powerful impromptu interviews to create a series of compelling stories about his peers. And now, years after his graduation, Lane seniors are stepping up to continue what he had started.

Created in 2012, Humans of Lane Tech is a Facebook page inspired by the phenomenal Humans of New York franchise. The page, founded by Shah, combines photography and journalism to tell real, heartfelt stories from the lives of Lane students.

In the year following Shah’s graduation, Humans of Lane Tech was managed by Autumn Bland, who was then a senior and is now studying in Michigan.

Bland said that she was nervous at first, but she really enjoyed the experience. “It was really neat to be able to genuinely talk to someone and find out their goals, fears, ambitions, or whatever,” she said. “Especially at a place like Lane, where it’s so big and you recognize so many people, but don’t really know them or know what they’ve been through.”

“I’m into photography as an artistic form, not necessarily just documenting moments or events. That’s kind of why I did Humans of Lane Tech in the first place; because it was out of my comfort zone,” said Bland.

After she graduated, the page was handed down to a “third-generation” owner — Lilly Lieser, Div. 759.

“I know Lilly from Digital Imaging class — shout out to Mr. Wilcox — and am familiar with her photography and creative skills,” Bland said. “She is very friendly. I knew that she would do a great job with carrying on the page.”

Lieser admitted that running the page is not an easy task. “It’s like a job, you just don’t get paid for it.”

She said that Shah and Bland recommended at least two posts a week on the Facebook page — meaning that Lieser has to juggle schoolwork, applying for colleges, being captain of dance team, and coordinating two interviews per week for the Humans of Lane Tech page.

“I try to do one on Sundays and one during the school week,” she said. “At first I was kind of reluctant to do it because I knew that it was going to be such a big time commitment, but I knew I would regret it in the long run if I didn’t.”

Despite the difficulty of the task, Bland is impressed with what Lieser has done so far. “She definitely exceeded my expectations,” she said. “I always get really happy when I’m scrolling through Facebook and see another post from the page. I hope she enjoys as it as much as I did and sticks with it throughout the entire year.”

Humans of Lane Tech has shown that everyone has a story to share – even the girls that are behind the camera.

When asked if she had a story from her own past that she’d like to tell, Bland said that her answer would depend on what specific question she was asked.

“I actually always wondered that myself when I asked people questions,” she said. “Like, hmm, what would my response to this be?”

“I would probably end up talking about my mom and not having my dad in my life because that has shaped me a lot as a person. Or about being from Michigan,” she continued. “When I moved to Chicago in sixth grade, I was a little different because I was literally from a small farm town in the middle of nowhere, so moving to Chicago was super crazy and different for me. I have an accent and I would get teased for saying things differently and I would just say “I’m from Michigan!” then it kind of turned into a joke. I used it as a valid excuse whenever I had a blonde moment, or did something dumb or tripped, I would just blame it on being from Michigan, it was pretty funny. Now I’m in college in Michigan so I need a new excuse…”

Lieser had a similar reaction when asked the same question.

“Oh wow, this is hard. I wonder if this is what people feel like when they’re being interviewed by me,” she said, laughing. “I would probably share a story about my seventh grade play. I was the lead and I have a stutter, which some people don’t really know about, but I have a stutter and nobody knew that I really had one up until the day of the play. It was the dress rehearsal and I couldn’t get the words out. It was a major setback and it crushed my confidence. I had to, like, regroup and then get back up on stage and it was fine. But that was definitely a good learning experience for me.”

 Lieser has been managing the Facebook page for a month and has heard several captivating stories, but her personal favorite came from her best friend Sheila.

“It was very genuine and very real between us, and I like that,” she said. “It can be very hard to get certain things out of a stranger, so I liked the level of comfort that was between us.”

Bland shared that her interview with a Lane security guard, Santos, was the experience that stood out to her the most.

“Everybody knew who he was, he was funny and social and really nice, but I wanted everyone to learn something about him that they didn’t know,” she said. “The interview took a really long time because he was just rambling on about stuff trying to be funny but he finally said something really genuine, and his whole demeanor changed. So I asked more about that and he ended up opening up about something that clearly bothered him in his past. Nobody else I interviewed had done that.”

Another memorable moment for Bland was taking the senior class group photo on spirit day.

“I was on the second or third floor of the staircase looking down at everyone and there was just so much energy radiating off of the group and it was really cool to witness from an aerial view,” she said. “I was just taking in the moment.”

The page has received enormous amounts of positive feedback. In addition to having thousands of likes on Facebook, Lieser often gets verbal responses as well.

“I interviewed one of my teachers yesterday; he’s the delegate for the union,” she said. “I interviewed him about the strike and what he thinks about it, and he had someone come up to him and say, ‘I saw your post, you had such wonderful insight, thank you’ and then my teacher told me.”

After she graduates, Lieser says she plans on handing the page down to a fourth generation owner.

“I’ll pick someone who’s a junior in my AP photography class,” she said. “Or someone who I know is interested in photography but is also responsible enough to manage a page.”

“Taking the photo is just 5 percent of the actual process, and it was a challenge to get a photo that fit with the story the person was telling, not just a standard head and shoulders shot,” said Bland.

“I think it definitely made me more self-aware of how I treated others,” Bland said about her experiences with Humans of Lane Tech. “I’ve never been one to judge, but going around and interviewing people that you’ve never met makes you realize how different everyone is and how some people have gone through crazy things, and most people don’t think about that because they’re just a stranger.”

“Most people are looking for a reason to talk about something,” Bland said. “Humans of Lane Tech gives them that reason, and I was extremely lucky to be a part of that experience.”