Stranger Scenes: Street Portraits in the Bay Area

Street portrait photography is an affair of the heart. Like all great passions, it’s incredibly addicting. Magic lurks just beneath the surface of things, waiting to happen. As you might expect, many interactions are briskly transactional. A yes is followed by a pose, a smile, a goodbye. But sometimes, an encounter—fleeting and intense—is revelatory. A few weeks ago, a subject cried because I reminded her of her dad who had recently died. She was looking on lens, fully engaged, eyes radiant, and then it happened, it just gushed out of her, grief and remembrance. Unprompted, she told me a story. I listened in a crowded cafe, human to human. A perfect moment.