This was a project done for school in which I had to step a bit outside of my comfort zone. I usually take photos of people I know or at events where people are aware that their pictures are being taken, but for this project I had to take photos of complete strangers. There are many photographers who prefer to take their photos first and then ask the subject if it would be alright to use their photo - this was something I wasn’t entirely comfortable with. I felt that a subject deserved to have the choice before the photo was taken. So, I introduced myself first to people and then asked if I could get some photos of them. Does this process sometimes result in posed photos? Absolutely - but my goal wasn’t necessarily to take solely candid shots. Surprisingly though, almost everyone I had met was completely fine with me taking their photo. In the end, I really enjoyed this project as I ended up meeting so many different kinds of people and got to hear some cool stories. I found it fascinating the way I could relate to a total stranger or just learn from them, and gain a new perspective.

Now for my own little backstory on how this project happened: One of my friends, who is included below, was visiting from California for the weekend. We had decided to get brunch on one of the days she was here but the wait turned out to be a little over an hour. So we decided to work on my project in order to kill time. We walked around the area, looking for people I could potentially approach to take photos with. I was super hesitant to approach people in the beginning, afraid of being rejected (something I no longer worried about by the end of the project). We ended up meeting a family that we spent quite a bit of time with, hearing their story from how they moved around and recently moved back to Michigan from California. As the parents conversed with me I took photos of their children who were bouncing around, climbing things, and doing flips. They were unbelievably energetic, but so entertaining and gave me some great shots. But I won’t lie, as I was taking their photos I almost had a heart attack every time one of them fell off of something or attempted some dangerous jump. We also met a group of ladies who were waiting for their table at the same brunch place. Wee talked with them for a while discussing friend group dynamics and talking about various other topics. As we continued on throughout the day, I began to gain more confidence in approaching people. The last people we had met before our brunch were a group of high school boys who were working for their friend’s dad’s company. They were putting up Christmas lights throughout the area for the holiday season. Afterwards, we had finally gotten our table for brunch and sat down to eat, talking about the people we had met in the past hour. After brunch there were a few more people we had met including my younger cousin’s middle school friends and a Christian community service club on my university campus. Overall, it was a really cool experience and one I would love to do again in the future, so keep an eye out for a part two to this series ;)