stranger 1/100

stranger 1/100 © Lilly Schwartz 2011

stranger 1/100 © Lilly Schwartz 2011

A while back I read about the 100 strangers project and thought that it would be great to try to do a project like this myself. Since I’m out taking pictures every day it seems not so far removed from what I do already, although I find it rather daunting to approach strangers. Precisely because of this challenge I find the idea appealing though, because it will hopefully help me to be more outgoing.

I was thinking about this already for a while, but so far my courage failed me every single time until a few days ago. On that day I went into the church that features in my last post, the Heilandskirche. I walk past it almost every day and I thought it would be a shame not to take pictures inside if I have the opportunity. I’m normally not very tempted to go into churches, because in my view it’s one of these tourist things to do that leave you with no significant memory at all. Another thing to tick off from the list and nothing more. This is also the reason why I was never so tempted to climb onto one of the hills in San Sebastian. Nowadays I’d do it just to take some pictures, but back when I lived there I didn’t feel like it was worth getting out of breath just for the sake of having done it. After all, when I lived there I had to climb a hill every day to get back home.

Anyway, immediately when I walked into the church this nice young lady, who was selling fair trade products at the back of the church, started speaking to me. She told me that the stained glass windows were made by an artist many years ago, back when there was still money for such things. She herself comes to help in the church every Thursday, also because it’s much less boring than sitting at home. She seemed active and happy, and certainly she also looks younger than her 85 years. After a quite long conversation about the things she likes to do and after buying some quite delicious maracuja jam I finally asked her whether I could take her picture and publish it here. She was happy with it and I also wrote down the address of my blog for her so that she can see the picture too. Nowadays even the oldest members of our society can browse the internet, now, that I call progress! Sadly I forgot to ask her for her name. In any case, if you read this, thank you again for participating in my project / Falls Sie dies lesen, danke noch einmal, dass Sie an meinem Projekt teilgenommen haben!

Comments

  • Great that you asked to take her photograph — taking portraits of strangers takes courage!

  • It is nice you first had a conversation and than you took a photo of her. She look like an open friendly person .
    robert

  • She has lovely laughing eyes! Am afraid that I’d have a problem asking a stranger for a portrait. Congrats to you for getting a start on your project!

  • I think talking to strangers and setting them at ease is the way to go before asking for their picture. It is amazing how folks will loosen up just by taking the time to talk to them. After all you don’t want to be like a typical tourist. It was good that you gave here the address to your blog too!

  • Wonderful post and photograph, I am impressed so much… Once again I should say, you are so nice, in all these photographs I can see your heart too… Thank you Lilly, Blessing and Happiness, for you both, with my love, nia

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