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 66/100 – Doug
What brings you uptown? “Just homelessness…”
Meet Doug.
How long have you been homeless? “This stint… I’ve been about three months out here.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Stay in school…. I stayed through high school just enough to graduate, and then I had to get away… from my father. My mother had passed, and I got away from daddy. Anyway, I’ve just been on edge since then.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “My biggest challenge is staying warm. It’s nothing to keep fed in Charlotte if you’re homeless. They have so many soup kitchens, so many ministries that feed the homeless.”
“Finding steady, gainful employment that pays me what I’m worth. I can go to a labor pool and work for $7.50 an hour. I’m not going to do that… been there, done that. I just would like to have a job where I can make enough money to support myself, take care of myself, pay my bills and survive.”
“I’m from the old school, Dan. I was born in ’65…”
I was born in ’68… “Ok, well, we’re in the same generation. I’m an old school… you go knock on doors. ‘Hey Mr. so and so. How are you doing? Can I fill out an application?’ It’s not like that anymore. You know, you’ve got to go online, and I’m very computer illiterate. And I’m dyslexic in a way, so to go online and fill out these applications is just somehow overwhelming for my mind, but that’s something I’m working towards.”
I would think it’s hard to get a job while you’re homeless. “I don’t even have a phone. I fill out an application… phone number… none. Come on, who’s going to hire that?”
What do you think is the biggest misconception people have about the homeless? “I wouldn’t call it a misconception, but just because you’re homeless doesn’t mean you’re mentally deranged. What I don’t like is, Dan, when people perceive you and label you. You know, they see me homeless and they perceive me to be a degenerate, wacko, someone who doesn’t have any ambition to want to better themselves.”
There’s some people who say you shouldn’t give money to the homeless, and there’s other people who say you should. Why is there such a disagreement? “Because of the homeless that are out here, who are not mentally ill, they’re 99.8% alcoholics or drug addicts. Which I’m an alcoholic myself… I drink everyday if I can. You just got to be able to handle your disease as it is and maintain yourself. As far as giving money to the homeless, that’s not the way. Because 99.9% of the time, you’re throwing it away. You might as well set it on fire and throw it in the street. Because most of us are alcoholic and drug addicts, and what money we do get, we’re going to spend on alcohol and drugs.”
What is your passion? “Writing…”
“In Arianna’s Eyes
In Arianna’s eyes, I see light and hope
I see a woman and friend
I see a cold, hard reflection of a man I could never pretend”
{ Doug recited the entire poem, but didn’t want me to print the entire work here because he hadn’t copyrighted it yet. }
“It’s all a matter of perception and how you look at life and how you perceive your situation. A lot of these jokers out here, Dan, they’ve given up. They’ve just thrown in the towel. I’m only 52. I figure I’ve got 20 good years left if the good lord’s willing… But it was good talking to you man.”
Note: As a general rule, I haven’t approached homeless people for this project to avoid exploiting them in any way. In this case, Doug reached out to me suggesting that I should profile the homeless people of Charlotte.
Technical Notes: Doug was sitting in a poorly lit bus shelter. It wasn’t an option to move somewhere with better light because he had so many belongings with him. He was extremely backlit, so I used a strong reflector to completely light up his face.
Stranger 67/100 – Remedy
“Hope, peace and happiness… that’s what I feel. That’s all the lesson we need right now.”
Meet Remedy.
Remedy, his real name, was born and raised in Charlotte and is a supervisor working at the airport.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Pursue your dreams and be steadfast in them… that’s what I’d tell myself.”
What brought that to you attention? “Seeing everybody else moving forward in life. I’m trying to do the same thing.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Myself, work and myself again. It’s up to you to move forward in life. I’m doing alright. I’m drawing more, dancing more… trying to do more of my passion.”
What do you draw? “I’m an upcoming tattoo artist. Yeah, I’m working on that most importantly. But, I’m trying to put my artwork online and have people look at it more.”
So, how does a tattoo artist get started? Do you have to mess up a bunch of people’s bodies before you get good at it? “Nope. Don’t touch nobody until you’re confident… until you know in your heart that you’re ready.”
Is there a way to practice on non-humans? “You can practice on yourself, pig skin, stuff like that.”
Pig skin… are you serious? Does it act just like human skin? “Just like regular skin, yeah… or fruit, mangos, stuff like that.”
What are your goals? “Have my own tattoo parlor and my own dance studio… things of that nature. Fashion…”
Fashion… tell me about that. “I’m very into fashion. I make my own clothes sometimes.”
How would your friends describe you? “Some say quiet, some say bubbly, outgoing, stuff like that. It varies. {laughs}”
Do you maybe act differently around different people? “Yeah, it’s dependent on the connection between the person… how I open up.”
As we were saying goodbye, Remedy said, “It’s pretty cool coming out and viewing the world and letting people see it from your eyes.”
Thank you Remedy for being part of my 100 Strangers Project.
Technical Notes: We were next to a large building with a bright beam of sunlight shining down on Remedy’s face. I used a reflector to even out his face. The holiday lights on the trees behind him added to the ambience.
Stranger 68/100 – Shima
“We’re from Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, so we’ve come a long way.”
Meet Shima.
“So, we’re here for this convention (Termis, a medical convention focusing on regenerative medicine) as poets… we’re spoken word poets. We’re doing poems on stem cell therapy and regenerative tissue engineering.”
Now how does poetry relate to that? “We write poetry about that. We have a doctor, a patron of the arts person, who’s brought us here kind of on his dollar. He just kind of fed us material and literature from his practice and we wrote poems based on those documents.”
Are you trying to be as interesting as possible? “{laughs} Yeah, we ration it. {laughs} But, yeah, so that’s why we’re here.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “To my younger self, I would say… speak my truth from my guts. Because I think that’s the one thing I didn’t do very often when I was like in my early twenties.”
What woke you up? “A massive mental health crisis actually… and then I recovered through poetry. So, I just kept writing, got gigs, got jobs, furthered my skills with creative writing instruction as well as spoken word.”
So it was writing poetry that helped… “Yeah, the writing and the performance aspect. The performance aspect is becoming more and more prominent and prevalent in my life.”
How would your friends describe you? “My friends would describe me as strong, generous, probably like a little bit moody, moody is the thing, outspoken… and I guess wise. My pen name is Dwennimmen, it’s a West African name, from a dictionary of symbols called Adinkra. It means strength, humility, learning and wisdom. That’s why I chose it as a pen name.”
What is your biggest challenge now? “My biggest challenge is to cobble some kind of a living out my skills and education. I’m a spoken word poet, and there’s not a lot of paper in that.”
You just gotta grab that big spoken word poetry money… “Yeah, you know, I just gotta reach out and take it. {laughs} It’s an interesting thing trying to create a job description out of that or trying to find a role in my local economy that will keep those skills sharp and keep me rejuvenated and healthy. Because that is something that pulled me out of my crisis… it’s like I have to keep doing it.”
Technical Notes: This stranger encounter was a comedy of technical errors. About a third the way in, I realized that my camera was set to f11 aperture. Those pictures came out dark and flat. While trying to hastily fix the camera settings, I somehow switched the camera to manual mode. Then I ended up taking the rest of the photos in whatever settings were already dialed in which produced overexposed images. I was sick when I got home and discovered this. However, I was able to convert this image to black and white, dial down the exposure and add contrast and coloring. Ironically, all of those errors forced me to be more creative in Lightroom and helped me produce an image that I wouldn’t have otherwise created.
Stranger 69/100 – Ben
While talking with Reggie (stranger #26), I noticed our next stranger walking by and had to approach him.
Meet Ben.
“I just got here. I was living in London so… I’ve been here before, and I liked it.”
Just visiting? “No, actually, I think I’m going to probably move here for a few months and then go back to London. Because, there, you’re only allowed to stay for six months if you don’t have a work visa, and I couldn’t get one.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “That is tough. Wait to get married. Yeah, I got married too early.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Trying to stay in London. {laughs} Because my girlfriend bought a house there and… you can buy a house there, but you can’t stay there. So, we’re both working on getting our visas to stay. She’s going back to school. I’m a chef. They have a shortage of chefs there. I could get a job there easily it’s just the problem is getting a visa. So you have to be sponsored by the restaurant, and that costs a lot of money. And a lot of places have to be licensed in order to do that.”
Where do you want to be in ten years? “Own my own restaurant. Have a rock and roll band.”
What do you play? “Everything. I don’t sing. That’s the only thing I don’t do. I can’t sing. Before I moved to the UK, I was in Philadelphia, and my girlfriend and I had a band. I mean we just used our computer and GarageBand to do pretty much everything and record.”
What kind of music do you make? “Myself, it’s more like early California death rock… little bit of Goth and punk in it.”
What kind of bands would be similar? “Christian Death, maybe early T.S.O.L.”
If you could put up a billboard in Charlotte, what would it say? “My dad always told me if you live long enough, strange shit will find you. I think that’s been very true in my life.”
Technical Notes: I interviewed Ben while we walked and searched for better light. We stopped here and there, took some photos and continued walking. This was one of the last pictures I took. I used a small reflector to even out the light on his face.
Stranger 70/100 – Julio
“Turn off your tech, and go outside and make love.”
Meet Julio.
“I’m currently an artist in residence at the McColl Center.”
What kind of art do you do? “My background is in illustration, and I’m self taught. As I come across new techniques and new materials, I typically work with other artists who have the skillsets to manipulate those materials to the specifications of my drawings.”
“I’m very much into pre-Columbian art… Mayan specifically. So I had this idea — what would Mayans have done if they had different techniques or tools or materials ? What if they were up north and they needed a headdress and could knit? What would their Mayan headdress look like? And so I met someone who does really good knitting and they were able to make my design.”
“A lot of the stuff I do is kind of identity-based I guess. So like looking into my Latin heritage. This other project I’m doing is based on Day of the Dead.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “My biggest challenge would be figuring out how to make the balance… do you work the corporate job and do the art? I’m getting married next year, and I’d like to have kids. Talking with some of the artists it’s like how do you support kids and live the life? How do you not sell out? Like does it even matter? So that’s the biggest challenge, but I think most people go through that in one way or another.”
What’s the difference between good art and bad art? “I’m not a good person to ask. I don’t like a lot of art. It’s like porn — you know it when you see it.”
Does art have to say something? Does art have to make a statement? Or can it just be what it is? “Good art usually does.”
Does it have to be intentional? “No, sometimes you can just have a little mistake you know? But I think it should say something even if it’s just to piss people off just for the sake of pissing people off and pushing buttons. Even at that level, you have enough thought to know the other side.”
If you could put up a billboard in Charlotte, what would it say? “Turn off your tech, and go outside and make love.”
Technical Notes: We were in a shady area, so I used a small reflector to bounce some light from below. I bumped up the color temperature a few notches to give the portrait a warmer feel.
Stranger 71/100 – Paola
While at Freedom Park shooting some video for a project, I ran into our next stranger who was waiting for a client.
Meet Paola.
What brings you to Freedom Park? “I’m doing a photo shoot. I’m a photographer as well. I have some people coming to take some family photos.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “To appreciate the little moments. Those are the most important ones. When you’re living them, you don’t realize… then you miss them when they’re gone.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Well, I just moved… settling down, finding a new job.”
What are your goals? “Just have a stable career, be married for sure, maybe have a family.”
What would you do if you had a million dollars? “I’ll buy a nice house. Open a nice photography studio. Help my family like buy them homes. Invest in some properties… oh my gosh, many things. Buy me a lot of pets because I love animals. {laughs}”
How would your friends describe you? “Very extrovert, sensitive, artistic. Sometimes very temperamental. Perfectionist.”
Technical Notes: It was an overcast day. I used a reflector to add more light to Paola’s face.
Stranger 72/100 – Bill
“Don’t be so serious.”
Meet Bill.
What brings you uptown? “Well, I live over here. I’ve got a little studio right down the street.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Do everything different.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Being an artist in the United States. The United States is not a big art environment. If you go out of the United States, if you’re an artist, you’re much more accepted I think.”
What kind of art do you make? “I’m pretty diverse. I do some illustration… I’m mostly a painter. I’m an oil painter, but I do a lot of mixed media… charcoal and watercolor.”
Where do you want to be in 5 or 10 years? “Maybe I’ll be out of the United States. {laughs}. I like to travel, so I’ll go around and see places that have a lot more art and art is a lot more appreciated.”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “I would never put a billboard up in Charlotte. I don’t know… probably don’t be so serious.”
Technical Notes: I used a small LED panel to minimize the shadows on Bill’s face.
Stranger 73/100 – Joél
“Love more. That’s a universal message that I think people just need to hear and to practice.”
Meet Joél.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “To find your passion and go after it and don’t be scared to take a risk. Take the risks, make the jump, make the connections, meet new people. Do the things that you’re afraid to do.”
What are your biggest challenges right now? “My biggest challenge right now is balancing this corporate career that I’ve built over the last ten, twelve years, maintaining it as well as balancing my creativity, being and artist and not suppressing that art and not suppressing my passion. Being able to fulfill both at the same time. It’s not easy.”
I asked Joél about the conundrum of working a full time job and doing art on the side vs. pursuing art full time. “I like to be able to do what I want when I need to do it. As a citizen in this society, everything costs. To be an artist costs… if it doesn’t cost you, it’s going to cost someone else. So, I figure why not me absorb the cost and I can do things at my own pace. I can do things on my own time. I can do things at will if I have my own resources and if I have my own assets. And I won’t need sponsorships and I won’t need to wait for the go.”
And you won’t need to sell out or compromise your art… “Exactly. It’s a balance that I’ve come to be comfortable with. I’m totally fine with not being a starving artist. I’m totally fine being the working artist who has an office job and I have my fashion line.”
Where do you want to be in ten years? “In ten years I see myself successfully running my fashion line… maybe not at a global scale, but like just successfully running it. Producing stuff that people want, producing stuff that I want and just making my impact in a small way. And even if I’m still working corporate, it’s a win-win situation for me.”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it way? “I would tell people to just love more. Love more. Simply that. Love more. That’s a universal message that I think people just need to hear and to practice.”
Technical Notes: It was a bright day, so we moved to a shadier area to avoid any harsh lighting. I used a reflector to brighten up Joél‘s face.
Stranger 74/100 – Tom
“Don’t make mistakes like I did…”
Meet Tom.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Don’t be so stupid.”
Would your younger self know what that meant? “No. {laughs}. Don’t make mistakes like I did… and I did.”
What’s your biggest challenge right now? “Right now? Survival.”
Are you homeless? “Yeah”
For how long? “Oh, I don’t know… a couple years.”
Are there misconceptions of the homeless? “They probably think they’re criminals. I don’t think so. People get into those circumstances like me, not by choice, but happenstance. It just happens. You make mistakes and you make bad choices, then you’re there.”
“My biggest problem is staying out of trouble. I mean people attacking. Oh, I’ve had it happen. I’ve done had my ass beat so bad that somebody called an ambulance for me. They did an MRI on my face, and I wasn’t doing anything. I don’t piss people off. I mean… why? I’m a good guy. I’m easy to get along with. I don’t mess with anybody, and he beat the living shit out of me, and I don’t know why. I still don’t know why. It bothers me. I have nightmares over it.”
Can you tell me about your time in the service? “I was an aviation supply mechanic. I found parts for aircraft… jets, helicopters. I joined in ’75 and I got out in ’81.”
So you missed Vietnam then… “Just… just missed it by nine days.”
What happened after you left the military? “Charlotte firefighter… 15 years. I always wanted to. I wanted to go be a firefighter in the Marines.”
Note: As a general rule, I haven’t approached homeless people for this project to avoid exploiting them in any way. In this case, Tom approached me to ask about my project.
Technical Notes: It was a sunny day, so we moved to a shadier area. I used a reflector to light up Tom’s face. I decided to convert to black & white to make the image more cohesive and to minimize the distracting colors of his hat.
Stranger 75/100 – Julien
“Love one another and maintain.”
Meet Julien.
What are you doing uptown? “Just chilling before I go to work. I went to go like meditate for a second. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the sounds of nature.”
So do you meditate everyday? “I used to. I might get back to the swing of things.”
Meditation is one of those things that everybody aspires to do, but most people don’t. “Yeah. {laughs}. Most people don’t.”
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Stick to yourself.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Just getting back on the good foot. To get equilibrium.”
What are your goals? Where do you want to be in 10 years? “Maybe I’ll have sold a bunch of music. Have a good life. At least maybe I have my own house to share with my son.”
What kind of music do you make? “I do rap, rock and R&B. I even like some electro-funk kind of thing. I just work by myself. I write music… I’ve wrote like 320 records. Yeah, I wrote a lot of songs.”
“I’m not necessarily going for like a gimmick in music. I don’t want to be limited to doing one thing. I want to do all things. I want to be into like rock. I want to do R&B. I want to be in soul music. I want to be able to do rap music. I want to do different genres within rap music. I don’t want to only do one kind of thing. That’s boring and bland.”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “Love one another and maintain.”
Technical Notes: We were under an overhang near the side entrance of a bank. Julien was lit from his left side and I used a reflector to even out the light on his face.
Stranger 76/100 – Melysa
I ran into our next stranger while she was out riding a bike and enjoying the warm weather.
Meet Melysa.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Take your time to think. Take your time… it’s ok. Slow down a little bit. You just gotta let things go. Take your time and everything’s going to work out.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “I don’t know exactly what I want to do with my life. I have two options, and I’m trying to figure which will be the best for me right now.”
“I was assigned here college then I had to stop doing it since my dad left my mom. He was the one putting the income in the house. So now my option is go back to my country, that’s Spain, and just go to college. It will be easier for me than trying to make it by myself here.”
What are your goals? Where do you want to be in ten years? “Graduate, have my own career, probably my own business.”
Technical Notes: I used a reflector to light up the right side of Melysa’s face which was in shadow. She helped me by holding one side of the reflector with her right hand since it was very windy.
Stranger 77/100 – Cue
“Don’t wait. A lot of people are waiting around for something to happen.”
Meet Cue.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Actually pay attention in school, don’t be a class clown and follow your goals. Don’t let anybody tell you to wait to do anything. Just do it as soon as you think about it.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “I know what I want to do but just finding out how to start and like where to start and finding a good audience for it. I DJ. I make EDM and house music. It’s just finding a good crowd, man, and figuring out what to do and who likes it and doesn’t like it.”
I know the music is important, but a lot of it is self-promotion too right? “Yeah, self-promotion and finding your niche and finding out what the people like. That’s pretty much it. And you have to be able to take negative feedback.”
Are you ok with that? Can you handle it? “Yeah, I like feedback because it helps a lot. Some people don’t like it. If you tell me what you don’t like, I’ll figure it out and I’ll make something better and you’ll like it after that.”
Where do you want to be in ten years? “I want to be a DJ at festivals. Yeah, big festivals like Ultra, Tomorrowland, stuff like that. Like in Germany, Miami…”
If you could put a billboard up in Charlotte, what would it say? “Don’t wait. A lot of people are waiting around for something to happen.”
Technical Notes: I used a reflector to even out the light on Cue’s face.
Stranger 78/100 – Kia
“Be yourself and have faith.”
Meet Kia.
What advice would you give to your younger self? “Don’t fall for everybody’s opinions.”
What is your biggest challenge right now? “Trying to be more social.”
Would you say that you’re an introvert? “Yeah.”
Me too. {laughs}
Where do you want to be in ten years? “Doing my own thing. Probably owning a business.”
A big one or just a small business? “We can go big. Bigger is better. {laughs}”
How would your friends describe you? “Crazy. {laughs}”
If you could put up a billboard in Charlotte, what would it say? “Be yourself and have faith.”
Technical Notes: I positioned Kia just out of the direct sunlight. It was so windy that I couldn’t hold the reflector, so Kia’s friend held it for me. Just on a whim, I decided to try a lower camera angle, and it turned out to be my favorite shot.
