The First Photography.ca 100 Strangers Project

**QuietOne** · 07-24-2010, 09:58 PM

Originally Posted by mbrager

it was used for commercial gain, it was exploitive or used out of context or it was demeaning or clearly unflattering.

Lately I've been thinking about the various People of Walmart pictures that people insist on sending me. Although I do wonder what the people in the photographs are using for brains and/or whether they own a mirror, I'm more disturbed by the fact that many people see no problem with posting insulting photos and laughing at them. I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to tell my dad especially not to send them without him arguing that I'm being too rigid. I may end up simply ignoring the messages. Your comments fit in well with what I've been mulling over lately.

**JAS_Photo** · 07-26-2010, 06:45 PM

I have never seen the "People of Walmart" thingy but the 100 strangers as first conceived was never meant to be demeaning in any way. Actually, as first conceived, you ask the person for the photograph, find out their name and a couple of things about them, then post the photo. It is an exercise in approaching strangers for photographs. Our "100 strangers" is a bit more liberal and more like street photography in that we are allowed to post photos of unnamed strangers. My criteria for choosing a stranger is that they look interesting or are doing something interesting. I put as much work into the processing as a posed portrait, so I am hoping that if they were to see themselves they would be happy with the photo.

**mbrager** · 07-27-2010, 12:43 AM

Q1 and JAS, thanks for your comments. I agree with your approaches to the concept completely. Naturally, people make such interesting subjects, it's hard to resist the temptation. We must use power very carefully however. Mike

**Matt K.** · 08-04-2010, 06:12 PM

#38 Killer Eyes.

Caught this little one deciding if or if not to take another bite of her cookie. Eventually she did.

We need to keep this thread alive!!

**JAS_Photo** · 08-04-2010, 08:16 PM

Nice shot, Matt! Beautiful blue eyes!

**Iguanasan** · 08-05-2010, 08:32 PM

#39 - Getting the Shot

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**casil403** · 08-06-2010, 08:01 AM

#40 Daniel and Renan
So I was down at Fort Calgary looking for shots of minimalism for the months assignment.
I headed over to the barracks to see what I could find when I was stopped by Daniel who wanted to ask me some questions about the Fort. After answering a few questions, I showed him where he and his Father Renan could see and read the history as posted on the wall near the Fort. They were visiting from Brasil and had traveled all across Canada this summer, stopping in places such as Montreal, Toronto, Calgary. Tomorrow/today they are heading to Banff for 4 days and then onto Vancouver and Victoria.
I gave them pointers of what to see when they visit Banff and the mountains, Lake Louise etc.
Funny,,,,,On the way to the wall, I showed them Saskatoon berries which they thought were absolutely delicious and had never seen before...could not stop eating them and took pictures of them as well! They had all kinds of questions (seemed particularly interested in how we deal with the cold in winter...lol) and they showed me photos of Rio de Janero where they live.
I ended up talking to them for about 45 minutes and we exchanged emails took photos. It was really a cool moment spent. I hope we end up keeping in touch as it made my day chatting with 2 very interesting and charming boys.