I photograph people in public places throughout the world often catching them in unguarded private moments. The project is called Not Quite Strangers.

I like to show people and places that are recognizable, in part because they reflect sensations many of us have experienced, moments in which we feel somehow out of place. It is surprising and somehow heartening to run across these moments on a bustling city street or crowded bus or train or occasionally in a more rural setting. As much as we try to blend in, our outsider-ness will find ways to express itself from time to time. Sometimes it is turning away from one’s surroundings to survey inner landscapes.

During much of this time, I was living abroad, based in London and later Hong Kong. I travelled widely: to Asia, Europe, and Africa. Throughout, I found myself the outsider – not quite part of the culture I was living in or traveling through – yet, also, not quite a stranger. I was home and not home at the same time.

The photographs in the project were taken with both slide and digital SLR cameras. All the photographs are candid shots - no one is posed, no manipulation is done. They were taken wandering the streets or in museums or stores – public places that a person goes to. Just catching a moment in time.