100 Strangers Project
My name is Pete Walker, and I take photographs of strangers…sometimes!
In 2012, a photography group I was involved with in Hong Kong organised a Stranger shoot, based on the Flickr group 100 Strangers.
The idea of a 100 strangers project is to take portraits of 100 strangers. These portraits will be shot in the street and accompanied by a little bit of information about each of your subjects, e.g. their name, where they are from at a minimum, but the photographer should try to engage a little more with the subject to dig deeper.
A 100 strangers project is an exercise in stepping out of your comfort zone, both photographically and personally. I wasn’t a people photographer, nor was I a people person. Up to this point, photography, for me, was about observing and recording. I was a street/travel photographer or that the best way I can describe it A kind of fusion of the two genres, inspired by the daily life that I was surrounded by in Hong Kong, which is very far from what I had grown up with in England.
Also, naturally, I am an introvert; I don’t seek out new people to talk to, it’s not that I can’t, I’m a friendly and, I think, reasonably intelligent person. I worked, for many years on the front line in a Bank, as a cashier (teller to our American readers). There I would chat with the clients about their day and what they were up too. However, these interactions were my job; I would never have thought to start such a conversation in a pub or a Starbucks queue. However, what a 100 strangers project does – it forces you to approach and talk to strangers.
When I started with the project, I started with the photography group – we split into small groups of 4 and wandered around together in Victoria Park, Hong Kong. The togetherness too the edge of approaching people in the street cold, plus in my group, we had one local Hong Kong girl who helped bridge the language gap to the older generation who were in the park. Plus, the park is a popular meeting place for Indonesian Domestic Helpers who are enjoying their only day off in the week.
These first portraits are an interesting set; there isn’t a defined style or crop and is more of a random, eclectic collection. I believe this lack of cohesion comes from not be fully prepared. I did very little research into the project I just set off with my camera and hoped for the best. I was more worried about approaching people, and if I’m honest, I clung to the coattails of my colleagues in the group. Although, there are a couple of the images of which I am quite proud.
The second set of pictures within the project (above) are the set taken while I was on a three-week holiday. These images in my 100 strangers project represent the first time that confidence began to grow; I tried to keep the crop and framing consistent. I was on holiday in Australia, and therefore I was away from home and this addition anonymity added to my growing confidence. Crazy when you think about because at the time I started the project I lived in the bustling metropolis that is Hong Kong where you are also just another face in the crowd but have that extra distance from home gives you a safety net.
In essence, you’re highly unlikely to meet any of these people again, especially if they say no. Although, even though I grew a little bit in confidence in Australia when I look back at some of the pictures It seems as lost IQ points as took the pictures, there are errors caused by the blind panic of trying to take the photo as fast as possible as a not annoy the subject. My introvert nature was coming through. The best pictures for the project were of people I had sent time with on a tour of the Outback.The fear of a subject saying no is for me as an introvert is the biggest obstacle to success in a 100 strangers project.
You argue with yourself when you see a potential subject. “Will they say no?”; “They are going to say no?”; “Oh my god if they say no you’ll be so embarrassed” that little voice in your head can be highly debilitating. As I said in Australia, this was tamed because being away from home gives you a safety net. Still, you need to remember that even in your home town the chance of anything bad happening or also meeting the people that reject you is highly, unlikely.
I like to think that a camera is just a tool, but I don’t often convince myself. Any photographer that tells you he doesn’t have gear acquisition syndrome (GAS) is a lying photographer with GAS; and one day as a typhoon was approaching Hong Kong I bought myself a full-frame Canon 5D Mark 3, which I sat and held on my lap at home while watching movies until the typhoon passed over. However, that purchased pushed me to go out and try to get some more strangers back in Hong Kong.
The new camera gave another mask; it helps me approach people sat in Kowloon Park, who were enjoying a day off work as it was a public holiday and proved to me that there was little to fear from asking. No one shouted at me or laughed. I had a patter, and I had business cards to give to people so they could even contact me for a copy of the photograph.
Overnight, I was over my fears and quickly headed to Thailand with the sole purpose of taking strangers.
And then to Macau where I hit strangers 50, after about six months, quite an achievement for an introvert.
Mental perception is a big thing when you are working on project and milestones can be useful, and they can be harmful. For me, 50 was a lousy milestone it caused me to take the foot off the gas. The 100 strangers project by 50 strangers had almost done its job; it has removed me from my comfort zone and therefore didn’t need to be my full focus.
I didn’t stop taking stranger or street portraits; I had developed a style or voice in these pictures I just slowed down taking them when I saw someone attractive.
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