The first thing Russell C. Leffel will tell you when you meet him, is that he wants you to call him, “Rusty.”
Secondly, he will say his optimism is contagious.
Over the past few weeks, of what feels like one sad story after another, Leffel's optimism is a strange surprise to most people who talk to him.
He is a lawyer who has been working and living in Kansas all of his life. Leffel's is also a street photographer.
When asked how his two passions relate to one another, he said, “It’s people. It’s about people.”
It’s always this drive to meet, see, and understand people that drives him in both fields.
Leffel has traveled the world with his camera and focused on how people are connected through their interactions on the street.
His photography ranges from moments of everyday life to political events, like when Donald Trump came to Kansas City to speak, or when people were protesting the war in Iraq nearly a decade ago now.
“If it’s happening on the street and includes politics. Those are moments that people are expressing themselves. That’s part of our community,” he said when asked if he believed his photographs were political.
Both his passion for law and photography started out as a young man when his dad gave him his first camera in college.
During his time at the University of Kansas' law school, he formed the Students Concerned About Higher Education in Kansas. The group worked on communicating the harms of the state budget cuts and losing faculty at KU during the 70s. He even ran as a GOP nominee in the third district for Congress during the 80s.
Even with everything, Leffel is still positive about people and the country in general.
“Celebrate our streets, live life fully, and enjoy the ordinary times,” he said.
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