‘Dear Stranger’: The disturbing photography project that became something beautiful
Have you ever walked down the street, caught a glimpse of someone in the comfort of their own home and wondered how many times you’ve been observed without ever being the wiser? Imagine the terror that would come not only from being actively watched that way, but also from having been captured in photography for the project ‘Dear Stranger’.
This is the feeling that photographer Shizuka Yokomizo wanted to explore with a set of photos that, on the surface, look like they break straight out of the art world and into the world of stalking.
They’re nominally a set of portraits, but they’re taken of the subjects while seemingly unprepared for being photographed. So much so that Yokomizo isn’t even taking these photos from the same room as the subjects, but from outside the windows to their house.
By rights, the ‘Dear Stranger’ project should be as eerie and unsettling as the opening scene of Halloween. There too, the audience is forced into the point of view of a person watching an unknowing subject, as a six-year-old Michael Myers stalks his sister through their house before he takes up a knife and takes his first life. However, these photos somehow don’t feel like that. Once you get through the grimy feeling of watching people through the windows of their home, you realise that these subjects aren’t unknowing.
While they look as casual as anyone spending an evening in, they’re always looking straight at the camera. They are subjects both knowing and unknowing, giving the photos a strange, weirdly charming intimacy. One that comes from the fact that no matter how candid these photos seem, Yokomizo always sought consent before shooting via the medium of this letter she would put through the letterbox of a house she wanted to photograph:
Dear Stranger,
I am an artist currently working on a photographic project which involves people I do not know. I would be delighted if you could get involved in this project.
I would like to take a photograph of you standing in your front room from the street in the evening.
A camera will be set outside the window on the street. If you do not mind being photographed, please stand in the room and look into the camera through the window for ten minutes on _/_/_:_ pm. I will have come before _/_/_:_ pm and set up my camera. I will take your picture for ten minutes and then leave.
* Instructions*
It has to be only you, one person in the room alone. Please turn all the lights on and stand at least 1~1.5m away from the window. If you are too close to the window, you will become just a shadow in the picture. I would like you to wear something you always wear at home. Please do keep reasonably still and calmly look into the camera. Ten minutes is a very long time to keep still. Please try it as much as possible but you can relax from time to time. If you do not want to get involved, please simply draw the curtains to show your refusal.
I will NOT knock on your door to meet you. We will remain strangers to each other. However, I will send you a small print later on with my name, address and telephone number. If you do not want your photograph to be exhibited, you can then let me know.
I really hope to see you from the window.
Faithfully,
Artist
Yokomizo pursued this project in the neighbourhoods she lived in while living in Berlin, New York, London and Tokyo. While each photo is a literal snapshot of an individual household, when brought together, they show the value of community. It successfully captured so many different kinds of people living in close proximity, separate, but together. Some even went against the rules set by Yokomizo by bringing their whole family into the shot, making something that should be truly disturbing, something entirely different and heartwarming.
‘Dear Stranger’ is a reminder of all that we have in common, and how close we might be to each other if we only chose to look. With the subject’s consent, obviously.
