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Since 2007, photographer Richard Renaldi has worked on a series of photographs for which he asks complete strangers to physically interact while posing together for a portrait. Working on the street with a large-format 8-by-10 view camera, Renaldi encounters his subjects in towns and cities all over the United States.
Imagine being Renaldi, trying to recruit for each of these photos. He probably has only a few seconds to garner some semblance of trust. But then he makes it even more difficult by often pairing very different types of folks, and demanding the physical contact that would–for many people–cause the subject to jettison the project. And one more thing — I’m not sure how this cuts –Renaldi uses a huge old fashioned camera in which he covers his own head. In other words, he has (intentionally, I assume) taken himself outside of the process (except as photographer). He is not longer able to coach with any facial expressions because he is under the cloak. This leaves the strangers to fend for themselves in their intimacy.
This project fascinates me. I often think back to those fretful moments when I was trying to decide whether to say something in order to meet a stranger. That first thing out of our mouths is so often trite. “Nice weather.” or “You eat healthy food” (peering into someone’s shopping cart. But that’s how it often starts, and virtually every one of my good friendships started with something saying something that was rather ordinary and even cliche. From there, the friendships often grow slowly, with back and forth bits of encouragement, and often with a step back before there are two steps forward. And only after trust has naturally developed, without either party forcing anything, will there be any spontaneous touching (something other than a handshake).
Through his photography, Renaldi has conducted a powerful psychology experiment. I find his results stunning, because there is always a blend of recognition that the other person is a sentient human being, tinged with “but we aren’t really supposed to be this intimate. Oh, yeah, we’re abiding by the request of that photographer, who is yet another stranger. Somehow, Renaldi get it done often enough to assemble an impressive gallery (I do wonder what his batting average is–how many potential subjects abort the project for each successful photo?). When he pulls this off, does he do it because he has assumed the role of authority figure (I’m thinking of the Millgram experiment)? Or isn’t there, in all of us, an insatiable craving for physical intimacy, at least on the level of simple touching? To what extent is Renaldi’s job easier than it seems?
And if someone came up to you, asking you to pose for a photo, touching a stranger as though you knew him or her well, would that be of interest to you? I assume that I would say yes without hesitation, but it would depend on how I was approached by the photographer. As I suggested above, he or she probably has only a few seconds to make their case that they (the photographer) is someone I can trust. That seems like the most difficult part of this project, much harder than convincing me to touch a stranger.
