For his project Touching Strangers, photographer Richard Renadli says he wanted “to create spontaneous and fleeting relationships between complete strangers.” To do so, he approached people who had never before met, and had them pose together as intimately as if they’d known each other for years. The results vary from painfully stiff and awkward to seemingly meant-to-be, but every image captures a certain vulnerability that we’ve likely all experienced, whether at a cringeworthy pre-middle school dance photoshoot or plopped onto some creepy mall Santa’s lap.
Renaldi hopes to publish a book of the portraits in Spring 2014. He’ll be fundraising on Kickstarter through August 5th.
