Touching Strangers

For those of us who as photographers feel more at home in the loneliness of a mountain landscape than among the crowds in the city, street photography is a daunting task.

Though photographs with people in them are often the most interesting ones, taking them seem much harder. Walking up close to a complete stranger on the street and taking their photograph is certainly not something that feels easy to me. I guess it is a combination of shyness and not wanting to unleash unexpected rage and hysteria.

Richard Renaldi seems to have no such concerns, and has created a unique little collection of intimate photographs of strangers. The project Touching Strangers has a simple premise; Renaldi meets two strangers and ask for them to pose together for a photograph while touching each other.

I think this have produced some interesting images, and I agree with Richard Renaldi that the project " .. encourages viewers to think about how we relate physically to one another, and to entertain the possibility that there is unlimited potential for new relationships with almost everybody pasing by."