I enjoy talking with strangers. I think it’s something we don’t do enough anymore.
As people become more focused on their own goals, public spaces seem to feel different. They’re less like shared spaces for community and more like places where everyone is just passing through, focused on themselves.
A few moments before I took this photo, a family stopped me and told me off for taking pictures in public. I was documenting a scene unfolding in the snow. A simple moment of human joy and connection. The comment, “You are taking this family moment away from us,” really got me thinking. It caught me off guard and turned my thoughts inward about my practice.
If documentary photography steps away from authentic, unplanned moments, does it risk becoming something more curated? And if so, what does that mean for how we represent real life?