A street-photography project where I approached strangers on the street, took their portrait and conducted short interviews. This project took place between September 2017 and June 2018.
Stranger 53/100 – Bre
What brings you to uptown? “Homework.”
Meet Bre.
“I have to write some reports on like International stuff, so I’m going to the Mint Museum. There’s a photography exhibit from Mexican artists. Just something local that I didn’t have to spend money for.”
What are you studying in school? “Accounting… nothing fun. I’m good with budgets.”
What do you do for fun? “I write… fiction and fan fiction.”
What genres do you like? “For fan fiction, I’m doing a lot of Sherlock right now.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Don’t be so afraid. It’s something I’m learning right now.”
What is your biggest challenge? “My anxiety… just being out, talking to people, doing stuff.”
What would you do if you had a million dollars? “Travel.”
Do you have a place in mind? “No, I just want to backpack. But, I want to be brave enough to backpack.”
How would your friends describe you? “A laugher I guess. I laugh a lot. I like to make people laugh if I can.”
If you could put up a billboard, what would it say? “To thine own self be true. Just be yourself, and if that’s hard then learn to make it easy I guess. Love yourself.”
Do you follow that rule? “I try. I’m learning to right now. That’s what my playlist is… female singers who are all about loving themselves.”
Technical Notes: This photo was taken in an open alleyway in front of a dark window. Bre kindly helped me hold a reflector to brighten up her face.
Stranger 54/100 – Annette
Our next stranger was very positive, relaxed and comfortable in her own skin. She readily agreed to have her portrait taken.
Meet Annette.
What brings you uptown? “I work here. I’m an architect.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “It will all work out. Like, stress out less. It’s going to be fine, kid.”
Did you stress out a lot when you were younger? “Oh yeah. Well, because it’s one of those things where you’re trying to make all the big life decisions like going into college, going into high school… Oh my gosh, I have to figure out the next step of my whole life! Just go with it… it will be fine. {laughs}”
And do you think you have less stress now or do you just better cope with it? “Better coping. {laughs}”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Still the same stuff… like am I doing what I’m supposed to be doing or should I be doing something else? As much as I love where I am and what I’m doing, sometimes you can get complacent especially in a creative field. I like mixing things up and keeping things interesting.”
What are your goals? “I’d really like to have my own company and run my own firm.”
How would you do it different than your current place? “I’m a lot more invested in technology than my current firm. I also like experimental science and research which is not typically aspects that you integrate directly into architecture. I don’t know why…”
Are there a lot of overly traditional mindsets in architecture? “Yeah, you get one or the other. So, you get people who are almost purely sculptors and it’s really tricky to justify their designs. It’s like they’re beautiful, but they’re not actually helpful and there are buildings where they’re very helpful, but they’re just ugly, and they’re not uplifting, and they’re not inspirational, and they’re not any of those other things that good architecture should be.”
Do most architects usually have one or the other of those traits? Is it a rare breed to find someone who does both? “Yeah, it’s rare to find both.”
A practical artist… “Yeah, it’s like finding really good furniture design. It’s also very tricky.”
Functional, but yet beautiful… “Yeah.”
How would your friends describe you? ”I’m usually the weird one. {laughs} Very stable, but I’m very odd. {laughs}”
Technical Notes: We were in a shaded area, and I was a little concerned about not having enough light. I used a reflector, which Annette helped me hold, to increase the light levels.
Stranger 55/100 – Nate
“I was born in Detroit, raised down in Florida, but basically I cut ties with the family that I was with.”
Meet Nate.
“It’s a long story, but they kind of took the role of my mom and dad, and it really wasn’t working out too well when I started getting older. They started out really wealthy, and by the time I was twelve, they lost all the money by the twin towers going down. My uncle… his business went under. So I kind of got turned into from being their ‘son’ to becoming like a pet that they didn’t want anymore. So, I just kind of raised myself from that point on, and then when I turned sixteen, it got too difficult being there in that environment… I moved out at sixteen and a half and got my own apartment, finished high school, then went back up to Detroit… that’s where I met my fiancé. I finished up college down here.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Get out earlier than I could have or go and broaden my horizons, go and travel a lot more. I’m just now realizing how much you can actually experience with just talking with other people and going instead of staying inside or staying in the neighborhood, you know, feeling comfortable. I should have really just branched out and made my own family and met people. I’m starting to try to do it now. It’s just kind of hard with being older and having older people responsibilities.”
Do you have a place that you’d want to travel to first? “I want to go to Machu Picchu in Peru. I want to go to the tip top, breath fresh air and feel that inner spirit.”
Technical Notes: We were in a bright alleyway and Nate was positioned in front of a dark window. I used a reflector to even out the light on his face.
Stranger 56/100 – Angie
Our next stranger asked me “what kind of photographer are you?” I replied, “a tall, thin, white one…”
Meet Angie.
What advice would you give your younger self? “I would tell my younger self to accept myself as is and to be your best self.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “A challenge for me right now is wanting to do and be good at so many things. I love variety, but sometimes if I start one task, I won’t always complete it because I’m on to the next. I think it’s great to wear many hats and be multifaceted, however, it’ll be hard to develop levels of expertise if you don’t dedicate your time to one craft. You’ll just be mediocre in many different things.”
What are your goals? Where do you want to be in 10 years? “My long term objective is to be happy and spread love. By being happy, I mean self-fulfilled and at peace within myself. Loving myself wholeheartedly and spreading love to the world. The world is in a lot of suffering right now. I just want to help heal.”
How would your friends describe you? “If you asked a different friend, you’ll receive a different answer. {laughs} I’m not really sure, hmmm… I’m going to say that I’m fun to be around, and I do what I want. {laughs}”
Technical Notes: This photo was taken with natural light using a reflector.
Stranger 57/100 – Dennis
What advice would you give to your younger self? “To not get in the trouble I got into after I left the military.”
Meet Dennis.
Dennis is originally from Louisiana and graduated from high school at the age of 16. He later enlisted for Vietnam and served there from 1973 to 1975. He left Vietnam just months before the fall of Saigon. The pin on the front of his hat is a parachutist badge.
After getting out of the military, Dennis was convicted of assault and spent many years in prison.
Dennis now calls Las Vegas home. His first goal is to move into a bigger house. Then he plans to invest in some real estate to earn some rental income. He also has plans to buy houses to fix up and resell.
Technical Notes: The left side of Dennis’ face was lit from above by light reflecting off a nearby building. I used a reflector to bounce some light to the right side of his face.
Stranger 58/100 – Donnell
Our next stranger is from New Jersey and was in Charlotte visiting some friends.
Meet Donnell.
What do you do in New Jersey? “Actually, I’m trying to go to this truck driving school.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Don’t judge and just go for it. Stop waiting. Don’t judge myself… the stuff I wear, my hair, skin color, personality. Just don’t judge. Just keep going man. If somebody says something different, don’t listen to them. If you believe it then you can do it. I would tell my younger self that.”
When you were younger, did you have trouble doing that? “In my head, it’s just like… can I really do it? I always wanted to be an actor, but I think… can I really do it? Nah, I don’t know because I always try to rush into things. But as I grow older… everybody move at their own different pace. Everybody just stay in their own lane. Your time will come.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Confidence. My biggest challenge is confidence… in myself. Sometimes I feel ugly. Sometimes I don’t want to go outside.”
What helps you get confident? “My nephews. They give me a whole different type of energy. I never expected it. Especially with kids… you can learn a lot from kids.”
What are your goals? “My short-term goal is to get my CDL (Commercial Driver’s License) and start working for myself. My other short-term goal is really saving $100,000. But my long term goal is becoming an entertainer, an actor, learning how to do great films, video… different things in the entertainment business.”
Technical Notes: I used a reflector to add more light to Donnell’s face.
Stranger 59/100 – Tony
Our next stranger works at a local coffee house. I approached him while he was playing Pokémon Go with a friend. “We did a couple of legendary raids…”
Meet Tony.
What do you do in your free time? “Hang out with friends mainly.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Keep your chin up. Everything’s going to be ok. It’s something I always tell myself when things get kind of hard.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Being an adult. {laughs}”
What’s the hardest thing about being an adult? “Just realizing that work is just like school. So I’m really doing the same thing I was doing as a kid… except now I get paid.”
What would you do if you had a million dollars? “I wouldn’t do anything different. Money’s not a big deal. It just means I have a lot more of it. I can’t think of anything off the top of my head that I would do special.”
What are you goals? Where do you want to be in ten years? “Just surviving. Keeping comfortable. No huge aspirations.”
What is your passion? “In between coffee and cartoons. Anything from kids cartoons to adult cartoons, Japanese Anime and just your average American cartoons.”
Technical Notes: This photo was taken in an open alleyway in front of a dark window. His friend was kind enough to hold the reflector for me to light Tony’s face more evenly.
Stranger 60/100 – Alvin
“I spent the last five years traveling to Ferguson, Baltimore, Berkeley, Chicago, Standing Rock, Milwaukee, Madison, Charlotte of course, Charlottesville…”
Meet Alvin.
Alvin is a featured photographer in a local exhibit called Know Justice, Know Peace — a community-created exhibit about police-involved shootings.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “To do everything I can do that day. I wasted a good fifteen to twenty years of my life thinking that there was tomorrow. I would do everything I needed to do that day… everything that day. Educationally, financially, spiritually, physically… do it that day. Stop putting off assuming that you have another opportunity to be great. Sometimes you only have that time, you only have that second.”
What do you think is your biggest challenge right now? “My pockets haven’t quite caught up with my ambition. A lot of people think that activism work just happens. Well, fuel… there’s a price tag attached to that. Food… you know, you have to pay to eat. You have to pay for lodging and things like that. If you’re an individual that has a good job, well, financially you can handle it, but how do you take off from work at a good job to go cover or document a protest in another city or state? So, there’s that balance that a lot of people don’t take into account with the work. It’s morphed into working with the Panthers. It’s morphed into being on Jay Z’s 4:44 Tour. It’s morphed into this exhibit. I have an exhibit at Davidson College entitled Three Steps Back. It’s happening. Everything that I’m wanting, that I’m speaking to, is happening, but I have to show up.”
Do you have a life philosophy that you follow? “I’m really here to get everything that they said that I couldn’t have. Everything that I wasn’t qualified for. Everything that I wasn’t educated enough for, I wasn’t in a proper position for, didn’t have the right pedigree… economically, religiously, I want. I want to speak everything that I need and want into existence, and I want to manifest it. My life’s philosophy is: go get it. Go get it. There’s no such thing as enough time. We talk about, oh I wish I had more money, I wish I had more time, but you’ve had more money, you had more time, you had more food, you had more clothes… just do it.”
Technical Notes: This is my first stranger portrait using a strobe. I used a 21” softbox attached to an XPLOR 600 strobe held in my left hand.
Stranger 61/100 – Grazia
“I walk all the time. I work. I write. I do many things, and I’m 80.”
Meet Grazia.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “The mind… take care of your mind. The mind is the most important.”
I detect an accent… ”I’m originally from Italy, but I left 55 years ago. I’ve lived all around the world in US American bases…”
Grazia suddenly started screaming as she saw a friend of hers walk by. Her friend explained that he also met Grazia around a camera. He said that she was trying unsuccessfully to take a picture, so he took the picture on his camera, emailed it to her and they’ve been friends ever since.
What made you leave Italy? “I got a Fulbright Fellowship (Biology).”
How would your friends describe you? “Crazy.”
What are your goals? “To have a happy life because happiness is so important. And I do have a purpose, and my purpose is uplifting people, and so on my web site I have a lot of uplifting stories because there’s quite a bit of negativity.”
Technical Notes: We were in dark shade, so we moved to a brighter area which turned out to be pretty harsh. However, I think the warm, colorful look matched Grazia’s personality nicely.
Stranger 62/100 – Tyler
I ran into our next stranger while he was out getting ready to have lunch with his fiancé.
Meet Tyler.
Tyler is originally from the Northeast and has lived in Charlotte for about two years.
What kind of work do you do? “I work in technology.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Don’t rush. Take your time. Think things through. And don’t make decisions for anyone but yourself.”
Is that something you were always able to do? “Yeah, for the most part. It’s sort of a mantra.”
What is your biggest challenge? “Balancing the pursuit of success with happiness. That’s a really complicated one for a lot of people.”
Are they mutually exclusive? “Not necessarily. I think they’re very much related, and that’s where the balancing act comes into play.”
How would your friends describe you? “That depends which friend you ask… {laughs} but, mostly pretty outgoing, pretty easy going, definitely an oddball. Considerate and there when needed.”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “Respect yourself.”
And you don’t think people do that enough? “Not necessarily. Not in my experience.”
What would you do if you had a million dollars? “You’re assuming I don’t have a million dollars. {laughs}”
I am making an assumption, yes. It’s usually a pretty accurate one… {laughs} “If I had a million dollars, I would probably play with it, invest, maybe go on a vacation. Standard stuff, nothing drastic.”
Technical Notes: It was a sunny day, so we found a shaded area out of the direct sun. Tyler was lit from his left side by a bright reflection bouncing off a distant building. I used a reflector on his right side to even out the light.
Stranger 63/100 – Victoria
I met our next stranger as she was out with her fiancé, stranger #62 Tyler.
Meet Victoria.
“I am a student, and we just moved up here a few months ago. We were walking around trying to get lunch.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Probably be more confident in myself. A lot of times I feel like I bring myself down for no reason.”
Has that always been the case? “Yeah, for a while… and then I moved to Charlotte and got out of a small town. I still struggle with confidence sometimes just being in engineering, the only female… you know?”
I’ve seen statistics where females just drop out at great rates… “Yeah, I feel like they’re not taken as seriously.”
Why do you think females drop out of STEM? “I just feel like there’s a little bit of fear just because it’s not a very woman-populated kind of job like science, math or anything like that. They’re just kind of like, oh, that’s not what I’m supposed to do. It’s just kind of like a mental thing. It’s like, that’s a men’s job.”
How were you able to fight that? “I’m very stubborn and, again, I’ve been working on my confidence. I want to do something that’s impactful. I don’t want to sit in an office and feel like what I’m doing is unimportant. I want to do something big.”
What are your goals? “I definitely want to be a civil engineer. I’m concentrating on energy design right now so… sustainability projects. I actually just had an interview… that’s why I’m dressed like this. So, anything with sustainability really… I’m pretty open to that.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Probably focusing on what’s important. I get really distracted easily… I want to go out to lunch, I want to hang out with my friends, but I really need to focus on schoolwork and do nothing else.”
What do you do in your free time? “We go hiking. We take our dogs out and walk around uptown a little bit.”
How would your friends describe you? “Probably as social. A little feisty. But genuinely a good person I would think… I hope so.”
Technical Notes: We found a nicely lit spot with a bright spot of sun reflecting off a faraway building. I used a reflector to further light up her face.
Stranger 64/100 – Brittany
Our next stranger certainly sticks out from the crowd.
Meet Brittany.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Be patient. Things aren’t always going to happen when you want them to happen. Things just gotta happen the way they want to.”
So you believe in fate I guess? “Something like that, yeah.”
What are your goals right now? “Right now I have three startup businesses going on. Doing as many things as I possibly can to get my name and myself out there and to market my brand. And, hopefully one day, get married. {laughs}”
What if you didn’t get married… would that be a big deal? “No. It’s as much for my mom as me. {laughs}”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “I’m very shy, believe it or not. Large groups make me very uncomfortable.”
Would you say you’re an introvert then? “Very much so.”
Me too… “Approaching people is not typically my… if it’s larger, I get scared. If it’s a couple people, I can probably get into that. Being a lot more open and being able to communicate with a large mass of people is probably my biggest challenge.”
What would you do if you had a million dollars? “Buy me a new car… a sensible car like a mini cooper is what I want. Buy me a few tiny homes… no set number there. And travel the world. I’d still keep my regular job.”
Do you have a life philosophy? “It changes. Every quarter I have a newfound epiphany. My biggest thing right now is not to worry. I’m a very worrisome person. Sometimes my anxiety gets the best of me.”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “Make someone else smile today.”
“So, get out of your phone. Talk to a person today. Make somebody else smile. Do something for the betterment of someone else.”
Technical Notes: We were on a shady city block. I used a reflector to increase the light on Brittany’s face.
Stranger 65/100 – Jessie
What brings you uptown? “Painting.”
Meet Jessie.
“Yeah, I used to paint a lot of people. I used to paint a lot of trees and stuff. I really want to be an architect, but they do a lot of computer work, so I don’t like that fact. I would rather take the same aspect of the buildings and put it into my artwork. You can tell just by the lines that it’s architectural.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “{laughs} Probably to not lose focus of my goals. Because there’s a lot of times where… people would tell me… doing other things are more important than doing your artwork. Art is always important to me, so I always feel like never give up. Which I never lost it… I just sometimes lost focus.”
What is your biggest challenge? “Now my biggest challenge is challenging myself. Finding new things to challenge myself is a challenge because I feel like I’ve conquered a lot of things. I can pretty much draw anything, so it’s like I want something to challenge me always.”
“Right now, this (current painting of the Hearst Tower) is pretty challenging because of the dimensions especially this right here (the front steps) is kicking my ass… just this… just because it’s circular. You have to add the characteristics to make it look like it’s circular but also squared with the background. This right here is challenging.”
What are your goals? Where do you want to be in ten years? “My goal would be not to lose focus and to go somewhere with it in a way. Or at least be able to do what I do comfortably everyday. That would be my goal. Not even being rich or like successful but just knowing that I’m comfortable where I’m at, so that way I can always do my artwork without having to worry about anything.”
What do you worry about now? “Nothing really. I don’t really worry much. That’s why I live my life how I do now. I just come out and paint and just hang out.”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “Spread love. That will be a big sign especially in Charlotte because I don’t like negativity. I feel like if you’re going to do anything, I would spread love, not negativity. Don’t be a hateful person. Be more of a loving person. That way everyone would get the message to love more and hate less.”
Technical Notes: It was an overcast day with very flat light. I used a reflector to draw more light to Jessie’s face.
