World of One: The Stranger

The Stranger (from the series World of One)

“There is no sun without shadow, and it is essential to know the night”
- Albert Camus

April was a crazy month, but spring is finally here and in full swing. While I originally planned to shoot this picture on the benches next to the Trinity Church in Copley Square, the events of the Boston Marathon bombing totally derailed that plan. Instead, when I shot a Kung Fu Master piece for Sifu Zhou Xuan Yun, I opted for the timelier spring-inspired location.

This was shot at Lars Anderson Park, just down the hill from where I shot The Indecisive Battle. My friend Henry, who assisted me with The Indecisive Battle shoot, renewed his role as the button presser. Continuing with the theme of being alone in a crowd, this is the sister image to Invictus, which I mentioned in the previous World of One post. The Stranger is inspired by feelings of loneliness though, as opposed to those of solitude, as was the case with Invictus. For me, the pain of loneliness is sharpest when we are ignored by others; to illustrate this point, I wanted to juxtapose the feeling of alienation with inclusion, and I chose to do this by surrounding a lonely figure with an engaged crowd.

This picture is the 9th image in the World of One series since I switched to shooting it with film, which means I now have more World of One pieces shot on film than shot digitally. This small fact feels like a big victory for me, in part because the notion of doing these pics on film still seems ridiculous (and expensive) to me, and also because I always thought I would’ve run out of ideas by now. Instead, I am pleased and proud of how this work is developing, and excited to see where it will take me in the future.