Why photograph strangers?

Perhaps it is a form of visual eavesdropping. I want to have a moment of their lives become part of my life. I find myself taken by their gestures, their expressions, and their situation. I am entranced by the people I photograph; those who pose and those whose images fall surreptitiously on the film of my Rolliflex. I have carried this camera with me to New York, Mexico DF, Paris, Rome, Chichicastenango, London, Berlin, Delhi and Jodhpur.

Among the photos of strangers you will also find the odd configuration of a religious alter, an abandoned hotel bed, an empty staircase, a statue. These stolen fragments are picked up to provide clues to another way of thinking about the people in these places.

As I migrate these photographs from my negative sleeves to my website they become postcards sent from a different state of mind. I photograph in order to see more clearly. Perhaps the photograph offers a form of ownership.

In the end I photograph to isolate experience from time.

Janet Delaney