Stranger #1

nobody@flickr.com (Joep R.) — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 10:01:04 -0700

Joep R. posted a photo:

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Alright, time for a new series. I have decided to do the 100 strangers project, check here if you are unfamiliar with it: www.flickr.com/groups/100strangers/

I have been working on this project for awhile now but only now starting with the posting as I wanted to make sure that I liked it first. I started during my trip to China, this kind of made the first step easier as being in ‘tourist mode’ you are already walking around with your camera taking pictures everywhere and meeting a lot of people. Further my experience is that many Chinese don’t mind to have their picture taken when you ask them. I have yet to go out in my hometown, Amsterdam, and photograph strangers (with their permission thus not candid like the rest of my work). This will be interesting but there is now way back now ;-)

So here goes stranger #1: We started off on a hiking trip, trekking through the Longsheng Rice Terraces located about 100km from Guilin. After walking for about 5 hours with amazing views we arrived in a very small village near the valley. Upon entering the village this man came out of his house to great us, he must have seen us coming down the mountain. My first reaction was of course to grab my camera and get the shot but then the project crossed my mind. So instead I greeted him with “Nǐ hǎo”, “hello” in Chinese and we smiled at each other. As I had already used my only Chinese word I continued in English which didn’t get us anywhere as you could expect, so it was sign language. I raised my camera and pointed at him with my other hand, he nodded. After taking a few shots I showed him the results and we gave the thumbs up to the best picture. We shook hands and that was that. So no name, no real conversation but a mutual understanding between people that live miles apart.

I have added some snapshots from the Longsheng Rice Terraces to my Facebook Page. Breathtaking views even on a misty day. We stayed in Ping’An which was a nice little village with plenty of guest houses.

Further added some outtakes (sooc)

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Uploads from Joep R., tagged pingan, with geodata

Stranger #1