100 Strangers
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Stranger No. 46
Normally I start with the photo. But Stranger No. 46 is difficult, and I wanted to give the background first. Where I live, the sight of poverty is common. In photography, I think it’s a subject that requires care. I try not to take advantage of human suffering just to “get a good shot” –
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Strangers Nos. 44 and 45
I ran into this family at the local “fair” – which appears to run the better part of the year, at the “Island Grounds” in Chennai. I asked father if I could photograph him and his young daughter with her big, gorgeous eyes. He had his other daughter and friend’s daughter step into the photo
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Stranger No. 43
Pooja lives at a “dhobikhana” in Chennai. This is a facility built by the British in the early 1900s, where thousands of Indians have been employed over the last century washing, drying and ironing clothes. This particular dhobikhana is the second largest in India. The people who work here have an uncertain future, because their
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Stranger No. 42
Ramaswamy is a jolly guy I ran into at the Mylapore Festival. I asked him if I could take his picture and he agreed. Then he asked for 20 rupees for a cup of coffee, presumably in exchange. I assume the gesture he is making with his hands means something, and there was a booth
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Stranger No. 41
This is Yusury. Â I took his picture with an old film camera, the light is not that great and I only got a single shot because I was unsure how to read the situation. Â This is in a small village on the banks of the Kinabantangan River in Borneo, Malaysia. Â Yusury is a boatmaker –
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Strangers Nos. 38, 39 and 40
Dan, David and Paul were spotted walking by the restaurant where we were having lunch in Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown. Â Dan is American, and David and Paul are Scots. Â I ran after them and explained this project, and they all stiffened up for the photo. Â As I was trying to get the manual focus and exposure
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Strangers Nos. 36 and 37
You always see mothers and babies, but I think there can be something especially poignant about fathers and babies. Â I passed Saiful (father) and Ain (baby) in a shopping mall in Kuala Lumpur, and was struck how they were in their own world, enjoying each others’ company without regard to what was going on
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Stranger No. 35
Salabuddin (sp?) was conducting a transaction in his clothing shop with a customer when I walked by and snapped a few shots without asking. One of his colleagues, perhaps his son, nudged him and said smilingly that I was snapping photos. So at this point I decided to make it official and ask him to
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Stranger No. 34
I ran into Zadar on Christmas day, during an impromptu photowalk to the one of the most crowded shopping districts in India – T. Nagar – on one of the busiest shopping days. Zadar was selling some sort of sweet fuzzy stuff in plastic bags, which resembles cotton candy in taste, but looked rather like
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Stranger No. 33
“Stranger No. 33” provided the most hilarious experience in this project to date. Â We were walking past a series of small shops, when I spotted this young man quietly reading a paper in front of a small book shop. Â I stopped for a moment and looked back at him, and nervously asked if he’d
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Stranger No. 32
This guy drove our rickshaw from the market in Hyderabad back to our hotel so we could catch our flight home. I think he was wearing a bit of eye makeup, but I thought it was an interesting look. He was a bit embarrassed when I asked if he would mind posing for a photo.
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Stranger No. 31
This is “Momo”, who was helping his father at a stand in the fruit and vegetable market. They were selling the strangest thing, which looked like very ornate lichens or mushrooms of some sort. With the language barrier they were unable to convey what they were selling, but “can I take your / your son’s
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Stranger No. 30
This little girl was with four women sitting at the roadside edge of a vacant lot selling baubles and cheap jewelry and, well, what seemed to be actual deer musk glands. I asked the “aunties” whether it was OK to photograph the girl and they agreed and she gladly obliged. Not wanting to leave them
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Stranger No. 29
This gentleman has a shop selling colorful shawls and scarves. The best I could make out for his name was “Mabipahn.” “I am Muslim,” he clarified. So I shook his hand and said “salaam aleikum.” Then I took his picture and continued on my way…
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Stranger No. 28
Stranger No. 28 is Gantesh. Gantesh sells what we initially thought was multicolored pasta, but what turns out to be made of rice flour instead of wheat flour. Instead of boiling it like you would pasta, you fry it in oil to soften it. He must have had 25 or 30 different shapes. When I
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Stranger No. 27
I unfortunately didn’t remember to write down his name – but this fruit and vegetable seller has an interesting look. Like the other fruit and vegetable vendors we photographed, he seemed to find it very curious to see two foreigners wandering around the packed market with cameras. The attention we attracted was unanimously positive, and
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Stranger No. 26
This is Suramma – stranger number 26. She’s another of the many vendors I spoke with at the fruit and vegetable market in Secunderabad. I got a pretty good photo of her, but my wife got an even better photo, and I’m a little bit jealous:
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Stranger No. 25
Viresh sells garlic and ginger in the market. We didn’t chat long.
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Stranger No. 24
This, as best as I could understand, is “Palleh.” He sells fruits and vegetables in Secunderabad, which until recently was a “twin” city with Hyderabad, but was relatively recently merged. He wasn’t all that keen about being photographed, but I asked him and he agreed, so here he is.
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Stranger No. 23
Today’s stranger is actually a group of strangers. A particularly vocal and raucous group. Their “ringleader” is Jaya Kumar, in the white shirt roughly center of the picture. I ran into them at the Sri Ekambareswarar Temple in Kanchipuram, India. They may have been pilgrims – or maybe they were just on a trip. But
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Strangers Nos. 20, 21 and 22
Poomaro Pandi, Yo Gesh, and Surya Paradeep (from left to right) were pilgrims I met while visiting the Kanchi Kailasanathar Temple in Kanchipuram. We were chatting and swapping photographs, and the next thing I knew they were asking to be friends on Facebook.
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Stranger No. 19
We met Suranja at the Kanchi Kamakshi Amman temple in Kanchipuram, also known as the “city of 1000 temples.” She explained that she is a widower, and she makes her money by giving tourists puffed rice to throw in the temple tank and other places outside, which brings blessings and luck – in exchange for
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Strangers Nos. 17 and 18
This is Indriani and Suttimetta. In India, it is a common practice for women to get up early in the morning, sweep and wet the pavement in front of their homes, and then, using rice flour (or chalk), create a design called a kolam. They are generally all different, usually symmetrical, and as far as
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Stranger No. 16
This is Murgan. Technically, he shouldn’t be a part of this project as he is one of the many people who asked me to take his photo, rather than the other way around.  The idea of the project is to approach strangers and ask them to shoot their portrait.  But I thought it was such a great photo.
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Strangers Nos. 14 and 15
Arais and Veerrappam were sitting exactly as you see them here, as I walked by with my camera, and thought it was the perfect photo. Â It was about 0830 am on a Sunday, and I assume this is their shop they are sitting in front of, getting ready to open. Â We had a brief chat