Photographing a Stranger

My third assignment for Documentary Photography was “Photographing a Stranger.”
When it became known on the first day of school that we would have to do this, I had a minor freak-out; I am like 0% used to or even fond of approaching people I don’t know.
I put it off for as long as I could, but soon enough…it was the day before the assignment was due, and I still hadn’t done it.

Fortunately, Chloe and I accompanied each other to make this experience less scary for the both of us.
We decided on finding someone Downtown, because it’s a location that people are guaranteed to be around.
As we drove down 400 S., we discussed everything from where exactly we should go to how difficult this was going to be for us…until! I spotted the infamous Liberty Tax guy standing on his usual street corner, holding his sign and waving at passersby.
All of our plans dissipated into nothing as we spontaneously headed back to (hopefully) photograph him.

I recall the experience of physically approaching him as being one of the most anxious, yet exciting, feelings I’ve ever felt.
As I wrote in my reflection, “I think that it’s human nature to be afraid of rejection, and I was certainly afraid of being snubbed or rudely rejected. I was uncertain and afraid of what my subject’s reaction might be to my request, even though he was a complete stranger.”
Soon, it was time to face him and my fears. We kindly explained to him who we were, what we were doing, and why we were doing it – and his response was as relieving as a dud bomb.
In fact, he was surprisingly quite fond of the idea.
In a temporary state of daze, I began to shoot…without necessarily paying attention to how I was supposed to be shooting (which I discovered after I got home and looked at the photos).

We only took about ten minutes shooting Liberty Guy, and the encounter consisted of minimal conversation.
It really was about 80% easier than I thought it would be.
Lastly, we exchanged contact information and informed him that we would be coming back to interview him with the photos…

[Come two days later, we were back for part two - Photo Elicitation (interviewing with photos) - which I will make as my next post in a few days ]

After our meeting had concluded, I walked away proud.
I was able to force myself to step outside of my comfort zone: to approach, introduce myself, and possibly engage in a conversation with a complete stranger.
I felt as though I was taking a progressive step into the art of photography, which only happens on occasion.

For this post, I’m only going to post one photo of Liberty Guy.
The rest will be posted with my next post, along with our interview and interpretations.

Liberty Guy waving from his mark on a street corner to passersby on a busy street in Downtown, Salt Lake City.

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