Street Portraits: A Cure For The Loneliness Pandemic

About two years ago I embarrassingly bought an old Minolta film camera off eBay as an attempt to connect more with a girl I was "seeing". We only went on one date, so I was then stuck with the camera after that. Little did I know this camera would help me and people I care about in so many ways. This is a short story about how taking street portraits helped a good friend.

Hey Alex, how’s it going?

Not great.

Oh, what’s wrong?

*He sighed* I just needed to get out of my apartment.

I get that man, it can be rough sometimes, cooped up in the apartment. 

Yeah. With Liz out of town, you’re pretty much the only person I can really talk to. I’ve heard there’s a new loneliness pandemic now… and I have it.

I’ve heard that too. People don't treat it as seriously as they should… Do you remember how we met?

Yeah. You took my picture at City Market.

Right! Have you considered walking around taking peoples’ pictures?

Not really, I mean, I don’t know how an actual "non-cell-phone" camera works. 

It’s super easy, I can help you. You could probably do it with your cell phone, but people might react better with a real camera. Didn’t you take a photography class in college?

Yeah.

Do you still have that camera?

Yeah, but it’s super old.

Doesn’t matter, as long as it still works it should do most of the work for you. I'll go with you for a while and help with anything you don’t understand.

Okay, but how would that help me be less lonely?

Because, you’ll be taking street portraits.

Street portraits?

Yeah, it’s when you ask someone on the street who’s doing their own thing if you can take their picture. What I did was ask if I could take their picture, if they said no, I’d say “no worries, have a good day” and move on. But if they said yes, I’d take their picture. 

Then what, I can’t just walk away, that’d be super awkward!

Sometimes you have to expose yourself to feeling awkward, it helps in the long run! But what I usually did was ask them if I could send them the photo so they could use it, and then strike up a conversation.

Okay…

Which means I would get their phone number, and if we had a good conversation, there's a chance they'd want to hang out in the future. Or they may have friends who'd like photos, so they might refer them to you, in which case you’ll meet more people and might even be able to make a little extra money!

Oh, okay. That’s pretty cool! And while I'm doing it I'm getting exercise and sunlight!

Yes, exactly! You’re also building your confidence and conversational skills! Not to mention you're using the creative part of your brain while having fun with the photos' compositions! One other thing I like about it is that I thought of the photos as trophies. They’re something we get out of the interaction, and something we can look back on and be proud of when we’re older.

That’s so true! I wasn’t thinking of all those other benefits, I'm going to try taking street portraits!

Do it! I’d love to have a friend to go on photo walks with!  

Main Take Away:

It may be clear if you know me, but both characters in this story are me (in other words, there is no Alex, just Nathan). I thought I’d experiment with conversational-style copywriting in order to tell this story. It was the summer of 2022 and I needed to get out of my apartment to at least attempt to make some friends, and I’m glad I did! Within a couple weeks, I met and took pictures of 20+ people, got their phone numbers, and texted their photos back to them once I had their photos developed and scanned. I do believe I benefited greatly from street portraits, as a number of them have become good friends. Taking street portraits is a healthy habit even if you’re not feeling lonely. It gets you up and moving, outside (vitamin D!), interacting with people, and engaging your creative side by experimenting with the composition of the photographs. I highly encourage anyone who thinks they might benefit even slightly from taking street portraits to start exploring the world of street photography.

If you’re interested learning more about street photography, need headshots, a photographer for events, just some tips and tricks, marketing advice, copywriting, or graphic design, please follow the link below to see some of my work and services I offer on my website.