Keeping Our Distances

I nearly named this piece “The Space Between” after the song by The Dave Matthews Band. The lyrics seem to fit.

This image epitomizes what I love about street photography. It captures an ultra-simple and common moment in everyday urban life, and still has the power to make you take notice and say, “Hey, what’s going on there?”

These appear to be two complete strangers on James Street North, in Hamilton’s Central neighbourhood, but you really could make up any fiction about them. A story could be about two total strangers living totally different lives in relatively close proximity to each other for years without ever knowing it. You could spin tales of two people falling into or out of love, being old friends or old adversaries. Another one could be about two cold war spies who have come out of retirement for one last mission. Whatever the adventure, fantasy or sorrowful narrative, it could be inspired by and built around this physical distance –- so close yet so far, that exists between them.

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