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The Faces of Maplewood

This photo essay depicts the smiling people that make up the charming town of Maplewood, Missouri, including workers, customers and residents. This community is tightly knit, and I strived to capture the shared joy within these people through my photos.

Two friendly faces, Rosemary and Granville, ran into one another on their way to work and stopped to catch up with each other on the streets of Maplewood, not minding the crisp wind as they talked. All photos by Anna Jeschke

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My favorite part of working in Maplewood is the friendly faces I get to see every day.

The community of Maplewood is small and tightly wound.

Everyone supports each others’ small businesses.

While some shop owners and workers did not want their photo taken, most were more than happy to help out with my project and proudly posed in their store.

I love the idea of photo essays and enjoyed this project a lot.

Telling people’s stories is a passion of mine so I knew my theme would be people-related.

I wanted to capture the smiling faces of various people in Maplewood to whom I get to serve coffee every day.

Each person’s shop is different and all their stories are unique.

I shot each picture with my long lens to create a more shallow depth of field, but was careful not to blur the background so much that the store behind the subject was lost.

Each person’s surroundings help tell their story and where they work.

I hope I successfully depicted the charming faces that make up Maplewood.

Steve (far left) is the owner of Great Harvest Maplewood. People drive across town for Steve’s bread. His customer service is hard to beat: he offers a sample to everyone who walks in with the line, “How about a taster, if I came to your house you’d offer me something to eat.” When I asked to take his photo, he insisted it was taken with his staff, which proves his passion for people.

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Anna Jeschke

Anna Jeschke

Anna Jeschke is a staff journalist for MBU Timeline. She is majoring in communications studies and minoring in Spanish and journalism. Jeschke spends her time working at her dad’s coffee shop, La Cosecha, in Maplewood. She spends her remaining free time with friends. Jeschke has a love for storytelling through photography and does so in her photography business reached through Instagram, @annajeschke_photography. She enjoys any form of art, including painting, dancing and writing.

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About MBU Timeline

MBU

DID YOU KNOW?
   
Here are some interesting facts about MBU Timeline, the student newsmagazine of Missouri Baptist University, in St. Louis:
   
*Our mission statement is: MBU Timeline is the student news network of Missouri Baptist University, a private Christian university that embraces the essential core value of “social change through service and leadership.”
   
*The Bible verse that drives our mission is 2 Timothy 2:15 (Worldwide English Version): “Tell the true message in the right way.”
   
*The WordPress website has been up since late-fall 2013. We average about 3,000 sessions and about 5,000 pageviews per month.
   
*Our stories and galleries get as few as 40 or 50 hits, or as many as 8,000 hits.
   
*We have readers in every state and more than 90 countries around the world. We have several readers in South America, the United Kingdom, India and Australia.
   
*Most of our readers are in Missouri, followed by Illinois, California and Texas.
   
*We do not accept advertising as we are a not-for-profit online newsmagazine.
   
*We welcome contributors from all walks of MBU life, regardless of your major. Reach out to us on Twitter at: @mbutimeline.