Via Flickr:
Walking along Newcastle’s Northumberland Street I saw Kat and instantly grabbed by her lovely hair I made a bee-line towards her but was pipped to the post by a charity worker. I hung around for a second or two to see if she engaged with him or politely excused herself and moved on – unfortunately for me it was the former so I headed back the way I had just come keeping my eyes open for someone else and also to keep an eye on what Kat was doing. At this point I bumped into a colleague so I stopped and chatted to him for a while which killed some time nicely. Not long after he had moved on (not to scare the fish away as he put it) I noticed that the spot that Kat and the charity worker had been occupying was now empty … panic! Quick look around though and there she was, pretty much right alongside me.
Having waited/stalked Kat for at least 5 minutes no way was I hanging back or bottling this one, so … "Excuse me, I know that you have just been accosted by a charity worker – but …" – a brief explanation and she agreed!
I took quite a few photos of Kat and much more than I realised at the time but the light was harsh so between trying with and without sunglasses plus different angles in the light and different angles to try and get her right eye peeking out from her hair (phew, there was a lot going on in my head) I racked them up quite quickly but when I got home I liked several of them and ended up having to choose which ones I liked the best (rather than which ones were acceptable as is often the case).
Kat is a 4th year Politics student but has no intention of becoming a politician – I think her response to that question was something along the lines of "Oh God, NO!!!" – her plans are to work for an NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation) such as the United Nations.
When asked what she likes to do in her spare time it was a simple case of hanging out with friends … and music! She likes all sorts of music but Reggae was the one that she specifically mentioned – between that and wanting to work for the UN, I suspect that Kat wishes that the world was a better place – and I sincerely hope that she helps to make it so!
Kat also become the first stranger to get in touch with me before I uploaded their photograph – she sent me a nice email explaining that she hadn’t fully understood the point of the project but having looked into it afterwards she thought the concept was "wonderful" and wished me good luck with my project – cool and thank you ;). She also told me that she was a fellow photographer – I must be slipping as I didn’t get that out of her at the time! That said I was painfully aware that I had stopped her no more than 50 yards from the last person to stop her so I was happy to get the photograph at all and let her continue with her day.
Kat, thank you very much for taking part in my project, yes it was a short meeting but nonetheless I enjoyed talking to you and I wish you well with your studies and whatever the future holds – I hope you do change the world because a lot of it is broken!
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Kat is the second stranger I photographed today having set myself the personal challenge of photographing 5 young women in a row – a "group" that I must admit to generally shying away from. Others may think nothing of this but I found it difficult for reasons explained in the introduction to Daisy.
I achieved this on the first day of trying (albeit my second attempt at the challenge) with the help of Daisy, Kat, Ah’freee, Lindsay & Maria. Thank you all!
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Please feel free to provide constructive critique on the technical aspects of this photograph.
This picture is #83 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page
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