The Stranger Project

As a photographer, my favorite things to shoot, by far, are portraits. I am lucky to have beautiful and interesting friends who are more than willing to pose for me. This has given me the freedom to be creative. It has also let me practice my technique and work on my directing. I am very thankful to those friends.
Although I may not be perfect at them, I am comfortable with the portrait sessions of my friends. I am now looking to be stretched in different ways. The thought of walking up to a stranger on the street and asking to take their portrait scares me to death. This is why I've decided to start this project of photographing strangers. This is why I know I'm heading in the right direction.

I unofficially started this project about a month ago. I went out one evening to the mall and walked from the Washington monument to the Lincoln memorial with one goal: get one photograph of a stranger.
I did not meet this goal...because of fear. With every interesting person I approached came an excuse...(what if they say no...what if they don't speak English...what if it's just really awkward??) I have to get over this fear.

Today I took my first portrait of a stranger. I will be the first to admit that I may have taken the easy road with this one - I was already at an event I was being paid to shoot, so me being in the environment with a camera was already accepted and comfortable. However, Jay is blind. So maybe this was the perfect stranger to be my first because He couldn't see me and anticipate the photo and I felt a little less intimidated that he couldn't see me.

This is Jay. He has worked at BAH for over 13 years. He was standing alone with just his seeing eye dog, Coojah, eating a burger and boardwalk fries. I approached him and introduced myself. He said he would shake my hand, but his hands were messy from the fries. He said this as he fumbled with a red napkin in one hand. He never put down that red napkin the whole time I was there. We talked for a few minutes and then I asked if it was ok if I took his photograph. He said yes. Even though he couldn't see me, I was still very nervous and I rushed as I composed the shot. Looking back, I don't know why I felt this interaction was an imposition to him. Throughout the day I came across many people who saw me coming with a camera and turned away suddenly or quickly covered their face - and I wasn't even approaching these people personally. Jay was alone and in complete darkness and was more than happy to let me take his picture.
Afterwards I thanked him and Coojah and went back to documenting the event I was there to do. It may have been just a baby step, but it was a step towards something new.