The Rewarding Side Of Photographing Strangers

I took a photo of this man in November 2005 while on a trip to Beijing. A year later, I was there again wandering around the same area. To my surprise I saw the same man again and was so disappointed I did not have the photo to show him as I never dreamed I would see him again. I returned to Beijing again the following week for another business trip, but this time I brought a framed print that I had made, which I presented to him. He was so pleased with it and remarkably, he said that he remembered me from a year ago. He even remembered I had a westerner with me at the time, my good friend Chas!

He invited me to his home in a Hutong to meet his family and even invited me to stay for dinner, but unfortunately I have a plane to catch back to Shanghai so I politely declined. His family treated me like a VIP and one of them took me to one side to personally thank me for the kind gesture. Hutongs are like small communities. Everyone knows everyone so it was obvious to them I was not from around there. Some neighbours came over to see what the fuss was about. When I left, a few of them waved goodbye as I passed their houses.

So I hope that if you’re ever feeling anxious about photographing strangers, worried you may make them feel angry, it’s worth having a more positive mindset, knowing that you could in fact bring them happiness, and hopefully that will help overcome any fears you might have harbored. Half the battle is having the right attitude and frame of mind and if you can pull it off, your photos will be much better too with that special connection between photographer and subject in place of the angry scowl.

There’s a YouTube video to accompany this blog - post you can view it here.