My name is Gonzalo and I have been documenting pictures of strangers for over 5 years. I finally reached my goal of 1000 strangers. Read along to see what I’ve learned and how this journey has taken me to over 3 continents, allowed me to connect with 1000 strangers, and become viral a handful of times.
1. Time Flies taking pics of strangers
I started photographing strangers 5 years ago. 100k followers, and endless hours of editing later and I’m here. The first time I asked someone was because I wanted to build a portfolio, but didn’t know anyone in my area. I went to south beach and just started asking people if I could take their pic. I asked nearly 10 people that day and I could barely handle the anxiety to ask the first person.
2. Nobody tells you how hard file management is
The reason as to why I showcased the fourth picture of a stranger I took instead of the first is because I have no idea where the previous 3 are. In fact, I’ve probably lost or misplaced around 200 pics of strangers. I have around 6 hard drives mostly filled with pictures and videos of strangers I’ve shot photos of, which makes file management difficult, yet necessary.
3. People are kinder than they seem
Sure I got a few mean rejections, but overall I’ll say humanity is nice, understanding, and caring. I’ve stayed friends with many people I’ve shot pics of. As a bonus I’ll share, the statistics of people asked vs people who agreed. Out of 236 strangers asked 210 said yes. I still haven’t counted the other strangers cause I haven’t edited it yet, but generally out of 10 people asked 1 says no.
4. Kind souls exist around the globe
I traveled to Asia and people agreed to take pictures and offered acts of kindness. I had the privilege of photographing strangers in countries like the U.S, Thailand, Myanmar, and even at a wonder of the world (Christ the Redeemer)!
5. Strangers seek to find deep connections
Sometimes I’ll go up to somebody who doesn’t seem too friendly and they’ll tell me how they just got to Miami and are looking for things to do and about their life and their day. They just want somebody to talk to.
6. Don’t Judge a Book by it’s Cover
I’m young so I can be oblivious. I’ll ask anyone for a picture so it’s given me some pretty interesting pictures of people someone might not normally ask.
7. The world can be small
After photographing 1000 people I’d see them again and again. Sometimes we’d catch up and talk a bit and those are my favorite moments. My absolutely favorite moment is running into a stranger that was battling a drug addiction that he managed to overcome and taking pics of him again.
8. Taking pictures of strangers has lead to some of my favorite moments
When I first moved to Asia for work I didn’t know anyone except for my coworkers. Taking pictures of strangers let me go out of my comfort zone and meet my whole neighborhood. I got to experience people I would have otherwise never talked to and even became friends with them. I met some of the craziest funniest people around my apartment and even got to shoot pictures of an awesome group of barbers that are also break dancers(kinda wild).
9. It made me more comfortable talking to people
I used to have anxiety to ask a stranger for anything, much less a picture. After asking my first stranger and getting a yes it made me way more comfortable. I wanted to push my comfort zone more so after getting used to asking strangers I started trying to move them around a bit. Now when I take a picture I even ask them to pose in a certain way. When I ask a stranger for a picture my nerves are still there, but I push forward. It’s not about being fearless it’s about conquering your fear. Now it’s about how do I get them to pose in a certain way that I want, or how do I get them to open up and talk more about their life. It’s also changed me in my normal life, I’m more confident in business and in my personal day to day.
10. I’d do it all again
my next goal is 10,000 and if 1000 took 5 years I can’t imagine how long it would take for 10,000. It’d be hard to share 1000 pics, but you can find some in my youtube videos and I’ll share a small gallery here with around 40 cause my website almost crashed uploading more. Here’s to the next thousand!
