Touching Strangers: Strangers Hug Each Other

EVERY DAY PHOTOGRAPHERS AROUND THE WORLD looking for new ways to tell stories or to capture what we previously did not notice. We choose interesting photo projects and ask their authors what they wanted to say. This week we publish the Touching Strangers series by American photographer Richard Renaldi. For several years he traveled in the States and asked completely strangers on the streets to pose for him and touch each other as if they were close friends, relatives or lovers.

In 2004, I worked on the project "America by Bus" - a series of portraits of people traveling around the US by bus. At that time, I visited a lot of stops and bus stations throughout the country, where I took off tired and exhausted passengers. Then I decided to try a new one for me: I began to ask strangers travelers to pose together, sitting on the same bench. To persuade strangers to share a portrait is not an easy task, so I wondered what would happen if I also asked the characters to touch each other? The search for an answer to this question formed the basis of my next project - "Touching Strangers". 2007 stood in the yard. Since then, I have spent several years photographing strangers who are hugging, holding hands, or even kissing each other at the camera as if they were linked by a long-standing, warm relationship.

Many of those whom I met during this time and to whom I addressed with a proposal to participate in the project, refused. But, interestingly, most strangers still agreed to pose. They were intrigued by the very idea - to test the limits of their personal space. Before shooting, I showed the heroes of the photos of their predecessors, to help them understand what kind of physical contact I am waiting for. It was very easy to work with someone, it was more difficult with others. There were also such heroes who had to reassure and explain that everything would be completely innocent, and in the frame I want to see the closeness characteristic of friends and relatives.

I realized that I was interested in photography, while still in high school. It added to me the self-confidence that was so lacking at this age. At the university, I continued to study photography and so remained to work in this area, completely devoting myself to becoming a real artist and photographer. I managed to work in different genres: I shot portraits, landscapes, reports, and even worked on conceptual photography. When I look at the pictures, it is always more important for me how they look in terms of aesthetics, composition and persuasiveness of the subject. In my work on Touching Strangers, it was very interesting for me to follow how unfamiliar heroes will visually recreate the intimacy that exists between loved ones and loved ones.