Each Wednesday I like to visit the work of another portraitist (usually street portraitist) to get different perspectives and inspiration. Well, this one is a Lollapalooza !

It is intimidating enough to approach a stranger, but to ask one stranger to touch another goes over-the-top, for me. But photographer Richard Renaldi does just that. His project, "You May Touch a Stranger" involves him finding two strangers willing to be photographed, and willing to touch each other. Read about his project HERE.

The Aperture Foundation produced a 4 1/2 minute video, with Renaldi describing the project in his own words.

This link contains more text about the project and the video (should the one above fail to play for you). See it HERE.

In the video, Renaldi looks for potential subjects on a street, and describes one as being "open". The concept of "open vs closed" plays right into my wheelhouse. I always look for people who appear to be 'in the moment', and open to new experiences. As opposed to the closed state, where the conscious mind is living in the past, or the future, in some deep recess of the universe. Sometimes my wife and I joke about this as we walk down a street. As we pass people, we comment, "open, closed, open, closed, closed" as we speculate on the mindset of passersby.

Enjoy.

Bob