Last night I had a friend compliment me on my ability / desire to see more in others than most people do. I really didn’t know how to reply to him at the time so I didn’t give much of one. Then just a few hours later, another friend, Don, commented on the above portrait with:

“You seem to have a way of connecting with your subjects without fear or hesitation and at the same time always with respect.”

The combination of the two comments from them got me to really thinking about why I do what I do – even though I think some people see it as very odd. I feel like some people think less of me sometimes for taking the time to give people a second thought that they may feel are not worthy of their time. Like a homeless person for example.

So, I took the time to write out my thoughts to Don in length since I think of him as being largely responsible for me being a professional photographer today (he gave my dad a really nice camera when I was in fourth grade, told him to give it to me for Christmas, and encourage me if I ever decided to pursue photography professionally. My dad did, and always has).

I thought my response to him – Don – was worth sharing here on my blog as well so I can direct people to it in the future that take interest in why I do what I do. This is it:

Don, I had a friend mention to me just last night that he admired me for really paying attention to and appreciating people rather just “viewing them as obstacles to navigate around” in my day-to-day life like he feels many people do. That combined with your comment here got me to really thinking about *why* I’m this way. This is what I came up with:

I grew up moving often as a kid, and then spent five years living in Germany as a kid at a very impressionable age. There were so many different types of people there with different perspectives on life. Then I moved back my hometown – Madison – which isn’t as much of a melting pot. People were more set in their ways, and there was much less diversity. Then, I moved to Atlanta for ad / photography school, which feels like THE melting pot at times. I had to adapt again. I felt like I was the weird kid at a school full of weird kids. Ad school was like a melting pot of weirdness – yet creative brilliance at the same time. So, I’ve had to learn to adapt and be comfortable around lots of different types of people throughout my life.

Looking back now, I think what really got rid of any fear of approaching strangers to do a portrait of them was a series I did in photography school for Benita VanWinkle’s documentary photography class called “People On Ponce.”

Most all of the shots I did for it were shot inside a couple of weeks on a street here in at Atlanta called Ponce de Leon – really late at night. It wasn’t very safe but that was when the really interesting people to me were out and about. Most of the people I was photographing and interviewing for it were totally different than me. I was trying to understand them better, even though it took me waaaay out of my comfort zone.

So now – after going some of the places I did for that series – walking up to a stranger on the street and asking to do a portrait of them feels like nothing to me. I think those that I approach often sense that I have no malicious intent behind asking them, and often seem happy that I’ve noticed something about them that I want to capture.

I have no problems telling them I love capturing random people on the street and that I’m really good at photography. Sometimes I give them a business card to let them know who I am, and sometimes I’ll just wish them well afterward with them having no clue who I was.

Anyway, I see it as my God-given duty to help people understand other people better through my ability to capture others well in camera and briefly share their stories as I often do.

Hopefully by doing so, people will see them and be inspired to step out of their comfort zones a bit in their interactions with others in their day-to-day lives. Hopefully, it’ll inspire just one of its viewers to…

…to treat the homeless person that they see on the way to work with a little more kindness.

…not to dismiss the gay person they know as somebody that has chosen to be that way in life, but instead, consider how they may have suffered because they are that way when they didn’t want to be, and have been ostracized by their family for it.

…to appreciate southern people for their ability to be content with the simple things in life that really matter, rather than think of them as slow or dumb because they don’t feel the need to live in a big city, drive a car that cost more than some houses, and live in a massive house to obtain their sense of self-worth.

It’s so sad to me that far too many people seem to be totally content with not even trying to understand viewpoints other than their own. Whether it be how SOME liberals view ALL republicans or how SOME republicans view ALL liberals. How SOME Christians view ALL atheist, or how SOME atheist view ALL Christians. Then there is the issue of race. How SOME from one race view EVERYBODY from another race. Just because of the color of their skin.

I can go on. Sadly.

I think that some people often only see what they want to see because they’re not willing to open their eyes – and hearts – and just TRY to understand those who are different than them. It’s incredibly sad to me.

So, sharing portraits of random people and their stories like I do here on Facebook and Instagram – it sometimes feels like my most important work in life – even though I get paid nothing to do it. It can be the most rewarding to me because I feel like there is more to it than just selling a product or service like I’m doing with a lot of my commercial work.

Yes, I do love my paid assignments and feel so lucky that people want to pay me to shoot for them. But me taking photos like this of people – and often strangers to me – to help people understand those who are different than them better is what makes my heart tick as a photographer.