About 10 years ago, longtime friends Shane Patrick Crews and Sam Anderson started talking about their childhood dreams. Crews had wanted to be a magician and Anderson, who came from a blue-collar family, had dreamt of being able to wear a suit to work every day. Both had followed their dreams, with Crews working as a mentalist in college and Anderson becoming a professional, but they knew countless others who hadn’t.

Last year, the subject of dreams came up again, this time with his mom. As a child, she had dreamt of becoming a ballerina, but after battling cancer twice in recent years, she told her son that now her dream was “to live.”

These conversations got Crews, who had been a psychology major in college, thinking. Why did some people doggedly pursue their dreams, while others abandoned them for a more “responsible” path … or found themselves with an altogether different dream along the way? Crews, who had himself gone after another of his passions, photography, decided to ask people these questions and capture their stories using narrative portraits and text.

Crews’ first subject for his Dream Nation Project was well-known Richmond artist and muralist Hamilton Glass, whose art can be found on both gallery walls and exterior walls up and down the East Coast.

“I called him, never even expecting to hear back from him,” says the photographer. But not only did Glass jump on the chance to participate, but his interview, which Crews expected to take 20 or 30 minutes, lasted almost two hours. Glass’ dream is “to grow.” Explained the architect-turned-artist to Crews: “If you’re growing at whatever you’re doing, you’re successful.”

“I’m just bringing the dreams and stories of everyday people to the forefront,” explains the empathetic photographer. “My hope is that when someone else sees these stories, it will encourage them to pursue their own life dreams.” In other words, a ripple effect in the dream pond.

Since his first interview and photo shoot six months ago, Crews has added more stories to his Dream Nation Project, one of them being the guy who helped spark the idea in the first place. Having worked for years to get three businesses off the ground (and succeeding), Anderson was a clear example of someone who knew what he wanted and was willing to do just about anything to get it, including scrounging the house for spare change to buy gas and eating a lot of ramen noodles. Now owning Richmond Bubble Soccer, Cycul Laundry and Anderson Consulting, the “serial entrepreneur” credits his success to never listening to the doubters.

“The biggest lesson that people should take away from this project is to take a chance,” explains Anderson. “Do not spend your life betting on others.”

Crews, who still bartends on the weekends while he develops the portrait photography business he launched two years ago, is finding that there’s no shortage of dreamers like himself out there. Everywhere he goes people recommend someone else to add to his project. Once he completes 50 interviews and photos in Richmond, he’ll extend the project throughout Virginia and from there, he hopes to take his camera across the country. Currently, Crews is hosting a crowdfunding campaign to buy video equipment to add yet another layer of depth to his photos and stories.

“We walk by people every day, sometimes by the hundreds, and have no idea what their individual story and life dreams are,” says Crew. “You just have to ask to discover how amazing the people around you really are.”

To see Crews’ work, visit http://shanepatrickcrews.com/dreamnationproject/.