There is an unspoken rule when traveling on public transportation: keep to yourself and keep quiet. I’ve lived in smaller communities for the majority of my life (Burlington, VT and Saratoga Springs, NY) and I’ve found that people look each other in the eye more often in these small communities. Whenever I’m in a big city, I feel the lack of engagement like fresh snow, everything is covered in a thin layer of concealment, but concealment that could easily be brushed away. I decided I’d try an experiment and break the silent rule. I approached people waiting for the T or in transit and asked them if I could take their portrait.

I would guess about 50% of the people said yes, and those who declined were very nice about saying no. Actually, I went into this expecting much worse. Of those who said yes, I could tell that some were uncomfortable in front of the camera while others were very relaxed.

I love these girls – they were really funny!

The image below is one of my favorite photographs from this day. Something about her pose and gaze felt very familiar. Mostly I love that she is oblivious to the young girl in the background who is covered in blotches of colored powder from the Holi festival that was happening nearby – there is always something going on in big cities.

What amazed me was once I had engaged with someone (and proved to them that I was not crazy), people were very kind, real and funny! It’s a little magical – the transition between seeing a person go from completely in their own world to smiling and chatting with me.

I’m sending out a BIG THANK YOU to everyone who let me spend a little time with them, you were all so kind to let me take a portrait. If you like the image of yourself, feel free to use it for social media or anything personal, just please credit me or if you are on facebook you can tag my facebook page.