100 strangers - about anonymity and confidence

I personally don't ask for permission when I take photos of people. So far, they didn't even recognize me or looked friendly into my camera without a word. But a photowalk with my photo class made me think that over. One guy just talked to every person he saw if he could take a photo. Haven't seen his pictures so far but I'm quite concerned they're great... so why don't I try asking people to take photos of them, too? I mean, what's the problem? Actually, I'm not that shy. And I have never noticed people getting angry because of me taking photos of them. But it's that hard to... begin.

Then, in a news article by Photo Assignment, I read about the '100 strangers' project:

The idea is to approach someone you’ve never met before, ask if you can take their picture, and talk to them a bit to get some kind of backstory, and then upload the photo (and a short description of who they are and what you talked about) to flickr and add it to the 100 Strangers group. Then repeat 99 more times.
Not only will get photos of different people in your collection, but you just might make a new friend or two. You can, of course, skip the flickr part and do this project on your own, but you would gain a lot of inspiration from the group.

Take a look at the Flickr Group to see what is meant.

One photographer who, in my opinion, has brought this to perfection, is the Canadian Benoit Paille.



He himself says about his photography:
Questioning the hypermodern world in which we are living and trying to break this hyper-individualism and the anonymity of the big city. By going into "Non-lieux" (no existing places) (subways, malls, and crowded streets at rush hours...) and by talking to people to take photos, I break the usual way this hyper-modern world works for a few instants. I make real these "non-lieux" by creating an event that the stranger will remember. I choose my models because of the emotional beauty of the instant and not because of their esthetic beauties.

Click here to look at more of his 'strangers' photos. And for those of you who speak French, this interview might be interesting to read.


Maybe in the futur I will be proud to present my own '100 strangers' to you. At least I hope so.


Eingestellt von pedestrian-zone 20:49 0 Kommentare Kommentar veröffentlichen

Abonnieren Kommentare zum Post [Atom]