I Looked at a Stranger and a Stranger Looked Back at Me

Aberdeen: The Granite City, The Grey City. I live in the Woodside area of Aberdeen, a forty minute walk from the city centre. The route takes me from Great Northern Road, south down Powis Terrace and George Street, through shopping centres and finally to Union Street. I’ve walked this route, back and forth for years, camera in hand, observing familiar places, anonymous people. Union Street, also known as The Granite Mile, is the main shopping thoroughfare in Aberdeen but the majority of photographs in this series were taken in George Street and its side streets. George Street is a melting pot of offerings from the Asian and European continents. Cafes, takeaways, convenience stores, barbers, nail bars and your traditional pubs. People live, work, shop and socialise here. I Looked at a Stranger and a Stranger Looked Back at Me. That first look, that glance up, that look back. The interruption of a solitary, introspective moment. A conversation put on hold. The urban to and fro caught mid stride. A greeting, an embrace, those human connections. That longed for cigarette. Smokers in doorways, on door steps. People at bus stops. They realise my presence. A momentary reaction and connection caught on camera. No intervention, no meet and greet, no communication. Except once: ‘Dinnae you point yer fuckin camera at me, pal’. The defensive froideur is common. I could ask for a portrait but I don’t want to impose myself onto the scene, to direct a look, pose or gesture, trying to recapture what first caught my eye. This way, the result is raw, direct and authentic. And throughout this series, the granite buildings. The grey and gritty background to the here and now. From the grandest monuments to the humblest of tenements, granite has a long history in these parts. But you can see where time has weathered this imposing rock, years of pollution dulling its sheen. But it’s hard, it endures, it lasts. This is the grey granite of granite noir crime fiction, the bleak backdrop to many a macabre murder. But in granite noir the rain falls and falls. Luckily, the reality is a bit less miserable. So within this monotonal physical fabric, people live their lives. My hope is to give a taste of people and place. To capture spirit and glimpse character via candid street portraiture.