The ‘Philosophy of Strangers’ constitutes an attitude that inspires the possibilities around ideas of exploring the boundaries in public and private spaces. In external routes of social engagement used to facilitate values of internal development, cultivating a climate in which expressing types of self representation can be seen as more inclusive than exclusive. It is a collaborative space of risk from which we should draw comfort, our ability to share and connect resonating at the core of our evolution and inform the way we relate to ourselves and eventually syncopate in autonomy with others
Davis Monolith 01
Patrick Dyer
Dave Lewis
Faisal Abdu’allah
In underpinning this approach we contest the fundamental vision within the craft of the photographic portrait and it’s presiding concept of the image being ‘taken’. What if from an alternate perspective, the portrait is seen as a gift, given in a subtle collaboration between the signifier and the signified. Connecting the opportunity, the narrative and the camera brokers through their ability to act with cultural resonance in that observation.
Delta Gumbs
Cynthia Daddey
Michael Miller
Maria Amidu
There is an inherent beauty in this kind of engagement that is triumphantly expressed in these portraits, exposing our need not just to be recognised but to identify value in the quiet emotional connection that develops through the way we choose to share on a much deeper level. To give one’s image in this capacity requires trust and a belief, imbuing the sitters with a sense of self in their potential, striving to accentuate a singular vitality in which they speak for themselves, reiterating their place in this world on their terms.
Kadija George Sessay
Elijah Mills-Morrison
Pastor Joe Reid
Molefe Pheto
Much of this body of work has been set in motion by fortuitous meetings with individuals, whose countenance, candour and patience sit kindly in the exploration of the creative process. This has been developed in connecting what does not exist in representing cultural identity to the canon of contemporary portraiture; our converging paths speaking to the liberation of possibilities.
The philosophy of strangers is a philosophy of life!
Ferron Rodgers
The Philosophy of Strangers
Monograph
Stuart Hall FBA