It’s The People, Too: Ten Portraits

When it comes to traveling, the people are as important as the place.

Almost without fail, it is the places where I made connections with people that I remember the most fondly. Paris was beautiful, but the friendships I made in Prague (or Kotor, or Budapest, or Yerevan) were more beautiful. Even if the connection was with someone I already knew–like my sister— those human interactions always influence my experiences.

As a photographer, I enjoy taking pictures of the things I see (both abstract and concrete) but also the people I meet or spend time with.

I love shooting portraits.

I’m awfully shy about it, though. Asking strangers if I can shoot a photo of them makes me nervous. (I’ve been trying to overcome that.) Even shooting close friends can be fraught—I find portraits to be so PERSONAL and so revealing if done well, both of the subject and of the way I feel about them.

But that’s why portraits are so wonderful.

I use my photography as a tool to interpret the world around me—what I see, what I feel, what I experience. As I travel alone and experience the wild landscapes and lively cities, I tend to take a lot of photographs that aren’t portraits. So the opportunity to photograph a human, whether it be a friend or a stranger, is one I cherish. There’s an unspoken trust that goes between a photographer and the subject; a willingness to be revealed, a willingness to respect the revelation.

I try to sneak some portraits into this blog, but unless I’m writing about a specific person, I find those photographs often fall by the wayside.

No more. Here are the faces of some of the wonderful people I’ve loved and laughed with these last few months—and some strangers, too. Because travel isn’t just exciting places; it’s also the people. And my photography isn’t just the places I shoot—it’s also the portraits I capture.