The Story Behind My 100 Strangers Project
For the past 100 days I have been posting s series of street portraits I took over a one-year period a while back. In every case, I managed to talk to my subject, sometimes for quite a long time. I got their names at a minimum and then whatever else came up in an organic conversation. Most of the time, while carrying my camera, I just approached the person and explained quickly that I was working on an art project. I handed them a card with the address of the online gallery where I posted the photos and asked if they'd be willing to participate. People invariably said yes. I was inspired to do this by Brandon Stanton, the photographer behind the Humans of New York series, although there were a few differences. Brandon presents in color, and I prefer black and white with two exceptions. He also doesn't photograph couples, and my 100 Strangers are actually 105 strangers because I captured five pairs. I took these portraits in six cities:
- Fayetteville, NC
- Raleigh, NC
- Wilmington, NC
- Beaufort, NC
- Columbia, SC,
- New York, New York
In a few cases, I took a candid (or semi-candid) photo of the person first before approaching them and I elected to use that image in the project rather than the posed portrait simply because I like it the most.
Out of all the people I photographed, two became friends, Stone, the tattoo shop owner and Michael, the cyclist. The rest of my subjects I have never seen again. You can see the entire collection of portraits together on the Fediverse at Pixelfed in this gallery - My 100 Strangers Project by Lou Plummer.
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