hello, my name is... Josh

most recently during my "hello, my name is" project, i found josh. it was unlike most other meetings i had had in that it was 3:00 am on a wednesday night and i was not expecting to actually find someone outside. to my surprise however, sat josh smoking a cig contently. with a smile and a nice greeting, i sat down and joined him. i think you meet the most interesting people in the most unexpected places. it was because we were both strangely outside at the young hours of the morning that we meshed so well together though. i could hardly learn much about him as he was more into my life. quickly, i made the connection between his eagerness to talk and question people and his major: magazine journalism. i can tell he's going to be successful. he just seemed very inquisitive of life and interested in people, which was what i was supposed to be doing. but small talk turned to real talk and we sat outside for a good half an hour before we decided we were absolutely crazy for hanging outside so late. my conversation with josh was definitely the longest and most in-depth one i have had throughout this project. these are the people i'm interested in; people who are into people, people who think about life and reason and the world and any other abstract thought you can come up with.

hello, my name is... Kyra

literally right after saying goodbye to my two new friends, evan and brandon, i noticed a girl walking by. i loved her sunglasses. and so i told her. and so she said thanks [normal answer], but then she commented on my hairband [which i had forgotten that i was wearing...durp]. we began talking about our similar yet different hippy-like-styles and other shared interests. with just a couple minutes to get to know kyra [as she was headed to class], she agreed to be a part of the "hello, my name is" project. in just those few minutes i had focused on her free spirt, nature-esque attitude on life and attempted to portray that in the photograph. although we aren't "besties" because of our encounter, when i see her outside the dorm i appreciate the warm hello she always welcomes me with.

hello, my name is... Brandon

brandon was with evan outside the dorm. [i realized it is much easier to approach people when they are in groups and it is sunny outside...] he was definitely harder to read [and see, and hear] than evan, but i don't think i would have been able to deal with two evans anyway. it was more easy to keep his attention and direct the photograph i wanted to capture. in his portrait i tried to portray his more quiet, laid back attitude to counteract that of evan's. after meeting him and evan, i thought about my encounter with michael and david; two incredibly different people that work so oddly well together. i guess that is how we keep life interesting to say the least. this inspired me to go after people who weren't like me so maybe i could get some new insight.

hello, my name is... Evan

evan...evan...evan...was one of the stranger [not in a bad way] encounters i have had throughout this project. although he wasn't difficult to initially catch his attention and get him to agree to be a part of this, i thought i was going to fail a few times as he was growing impatient after the first few pictures i could capture. his personality was loud and that is the only way to explain it. he seemed to let people know he was there both vocally and physically as he ran around the front of the building. however, it was these childish antics that both frustrated, fascinated, and convinced me to build up the courage to approach him. in the couple pictures i got of him i think i successfully conveyed his outlook on life, and himself. he was definitely an interesting addition to my collection of strangers, but i'm glad to have met him.

hello, my name is... David

david was the second person i encountered on my journey to meet strangers. he was actually with michael when i met him outside on the grass. i quickly learned we had less in common than michael and i. for one, he didn't smoke cigarettes and [jokingly] not appreciate me bumming michael one. however, i think it was our differences that made the experience interesting. personally, i enjoy the company people unlike myself and i was glad to take him off my list of strangers. although i could sense his more "conservative" personality, i realized that if him and michael could be such good friends, why couldn't we be as well? he was a little less excited about the photo than michael, but after a little coercing i got him to comfortably give me a genuine smile, one that definitely matches his genuine personality.

hello, my name is... Carla

carla was a little harder to find than the horde of students romping around outside day hall. instead of her coming to me, as a few of my "strangers" did, i approached her. i didn't bring up my project until she asked me about my camera. it turns out she is into photography as well, and has a nikon not too different from mine. photography turned into art which turned into artists and museums and cities; our conversation flowed naturally, like we were supposed to be friends. although our meeting was short, we have hung out multiple times since then and i can actually call her a friend, not just a non-stranger. she first came off as an average "nice", friendly, or at least polite, student, which is what i was expecting and what i tried to convey in her portrait. however, after our first conversation and the many we've had since then, i found a crazy artsy girl such as myself. after meeting her i thought i was either going to have a blast with the rest of the people i meet, or the rest would simply fall short of my experience with carla.

hello, my name is... Michael

michael was the first person i approached who was willing to be a part of the "hello, my name is" project. it was also the first nice day in syracuse we had had in a while, which made it much easier to meet people to talk to. he actually joined me as i was sitting on the lawn outside my dorm and we began small-talking over a cigarette. after those initial first-meeting questions [what's your major, where are you from, blah, blah, blah], i actually learned a lot about him. it only took five or ten minutes to find out a lot of things we had in common. i'm glad i got to meet him as he lives literally one floor down from me and we still hang out, and i probably wouldn't have found him if i wasn't doing this project. i noticed his talkativeness first, which is important to me in a friend as i do not appreciate awkward silence or boring conversation. it may have been the weather, or the fact that he was my first experiment, but michael definitely left an imprint in my mind and a smile on my face. therefore, when taking his picture i tried to capture his giddy, upbeat personality, which wasn't hard to do as he was unsurprisingly quite excited to model.