Something I really like;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/h...176235.stm

By Sean Coughlan
BBC News Magazine

There are people you see every day but never meet. Urban living is full of these close encounters where we never make contact. A photographer decided to talk to these "intimate strangers", see the photo gallery here.

Ever wondered who that person is you see each day on the way to work? Never spoken to them, but you see them every single morning.

You know what clothes they wear, the paper they read, the way they always stand at the same place on the platform. They also see you there every day. But they're still strangers.

These familiar strangers are part of urban living - neighbours you've never spoken to, the bloke who works in the cafe, the woman who sells you a newspaper, the usual suspects on the train.

Photographer Susie Rea is working on a project examining these odd, displaced relationships - where people are part of the landscape of our daily lives but remain anonymous and out of contact.

It's a weird one - there is an intimacy with someone you recognise, but they are still a total stranger," says the photographer.

And she's even broken the great non-talking taboo by approaching these people to ask them about their lives and to take their photographs.

Television screen
People can see the world, but know little of the streets around them

"It struck me as strange that you could go past these people every day and not know who they are," says Ms Rea, who like the people she has photographed, lives in north-west London.

"You could see these people more often than some of your own friends - but you don't know anything about them, you don't know their names, whether they've got family or what they do with their lives."

Her starting point was seeing a man in a Panama hat each day. He was always wearing it and it intrigued her to think about who he might be - conjecturing that he must be "a writer or a teacher, someone who could get away with wearing that hat".

But approaching him was difficult. "It takes quite a lot to meet someone you recognise but have never spoken to... it's a very weird experience," she says.

After failing to take the plunge a couple of times, eventually she spoke to the man in the Panama hat. He turned out to be a jeweller - and when she saw him each day he was walking to the synagogue where he was training to be a rabbi.

From this starting point, she began to approach others who are daily fixtures on her way to work - people who worked in shops she used, neighbours who stood at the gate, passers-by whose lives briefly overlapped with her own.

Her photos began to map out this community of strangers - people from Barbados, India, Iran, Ireland and Australia. There was even someone there from London. And the guys who ran the chip shop turned out to be from Macedonia and Kurdistan.

And from only knowing them as the "older gentleman from number 220" or "the man in the shop that sells everything", the photographer began to flesh out their characters, learning something about their background and beliefs.

But urban life is full of contradictions and can still bite you when you least expect it. Because even though Susie Rea had made a new circle of friends out of these familiar faces, when she was locked out of her house, her own neighbours wouldn't help. "It's a strange beast," she says.

Her project also highlights how little we know about what goes on outside our own front door. A community is now a non-geographical concept. Friends and family are scattered widely - with contacts kept by mobile phone and e-mail. And the real-life neighbourhood becomes an unknown zone.

We can look at the television or the internet to find out about what's happening thousands of miles away, day and night. But the streets outside? It can be a blindspot, a no-man's land which we navigate but never really know.

And the more often you see people you recognise but never talk to, the more difficult it becomes to cross that boundary.

The next stage of Susie Rea's "I walk to work" project is to carry out deeper research into the lives of the people she meets, capturing more information about these familiar faces who share the same streets.

Looking around a group of commuters, plugged into their iPods and sealed into their own thoughts, it might go against the grain to try to reach out. But this is what the photographer wants to explore.

"It's the things that are around us that are really fascinating... I like dealing with what's under my nose," she says. "It's about extending your hand."

Nice story.

CarrieMpls said:

I got alot of intimate strangers. I work in a store with loads of familiar faces.

HamsterHuey said:

I used to have a lot, but now that I have to drive to work out in the suburbs, not so much. I miss being out and about in the city. That's part of the point of living in a city, really.

CarrieMpls said:

The fun of working at Amsterdam's most busy place is that total strangers remember me and talk to me on the other side of town.

HamsterHuey said:

Being that I work for a large company, I get that at work quite a bit too. I think my red hair makes me easily recognizable cause I'll have people come up to me and start talking as if they know me well and I always have a mucy harder time placing them. It makes me feel bad when I don't recognize people.

i see the same people every day on the bus, in the building where i work, at the gym, blah blah. this will sound mean, but i really don't want to know anything about them, nor them about me!

Anx said:

It doesn't sound mean to me

That is also how I feel about most of the "daily" people I see

Mach said:

i usually manage a rapport with the "daily faces" with whom i feel comfortable acknowledging, even if it's just a smile or a quick "hi". mainly though, i just want to be left alone during an average work day. i'm not looking to make buddies.

Anx said:

Anx said:

I always smile and sometimes say hello ...

I am not looking to connect though

HamsterHuey said:

come, visit downtown chicago on a weekday afternoon. it's the most funk-devoid, sexless, joy-free place you may ever see. i'll make friends closer to home, where people resemble humans.

Anx said:

Is that where Oprah lives?

HamsterHuey said:

no, oprah lives on a castle on the moon where she trains her battle clones how to live in the spirit.

she records her show in chicago though.

Anx said:

Ah, next to President Bush, I suppose. He's up way high too.

Oh, neat.

I like that part of living in a city. It's kind of shocking how much of my need for social-ness can be met by just that familiarity.

I like seeing those people. However, I have exactly zero desire to talk to them the vast majority of the time. :lo:

HereToRockYourWorld said:

True. I shimmer through throngs of people, never making any contact. But if I want, I can. And I do, sometimes.

HamsterHuey said:

wow, I realy do miss it.



I think I need to find a new job again.

CarrieMpls said:

Most frustrating thing about living in a country of which I did not speak the language was that i could not chat about the weather with the woman at the baker's. It's the small courtesies of life that all of a sudden became very important.

I thought this thread was about humping in alleys. A sequal to a previous comment you made.....


M

MIGUELGOMEZ said:

Well yeah, that too. That would never happen if you just skulk on the metro, like Anx.

If you just look around, there is lots to be seen. People that check your ass on the metro are good for drinks in the nearest cafe.

In that setting, a deserted toilet will do.

HamsterHuey said:

Just because I don't want to play cuddlecakes with the coven of sourfaced secretaries on my bus in the morning doesn't mean I don't have a story or few to tell, between my NYC and Chicago years. But I've been called worse things thank a skulker. Hell, Herman's called me worse things than a skulker!

IrresistibleB1tch said:

I do too, sometimes. It can be much easier to talk to total strangers because they have no expectations. And if you offend them, well, just find another grocery store.

HamsterHuey said:

I could write a book on this! I might too. IMHO, people are

getting too afraid, paranoid, turning inward or choosing relationships online

instead the connections we are meant to enjoy in person. What is wrong with

people? There are certain people we meet in person and you feel you have known

them for decades. Yet getting close to people is very dufficult in these times.

Families are not close. Kids look to their peers 4 guidance because the

parents are absent. Grandparents ALWAYS played a very important role in raising

kids because their wisdom is so valuable. They are our history lessons. I'm so

glad I was CLOSE to mine. I have very fond memories. I try to be what I can to

my 2 precious grandkids. Its not easy. However, I feel I'm making headway. The

BEATLES... ALL the lonely people....where do THEY all come from. Where do they

ALL belong? ( the 60's) Its more so now. Paranoia strikes deep, in your life it

WILL creep. It comes when your ALWAYS afraid. Reach out to each other. They are

just as scared or moreso than YOU. They will usually welcome it. The kids

especially need guidance, but EVERYONE can use more LOVE. Its xmas, but love

knows NO season. No holiday. Visit the nursing homes, the prisons. VOLUNTEER.

See your families OFTEN! Listen to troubled teens. AND, make sure you get yours.

Dont just GIVE. TAKE too. Its ok!!! REACH OUT.

Anx said:

This comes as NO surprise.. *looking for my "who on the org goes out of their way to ignore you" thread

I think the "intimate strangers" is the worst thing about living in a small town, not a city.

I grew up in one of about 5000 people and I know far too much about people I don't "know" or care to know. Vice versa. Literally everywhere you travel you see the same people.

Anx said:

CinisterCee said:

you've been on the org a while, right? you changed your avatar - it used to be that robot from the simpsons or something? i think i'm going to go make up a thread about spats now.

Anx said:

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