Stranger Romance / Lonely Strangers
The Stranger Project was conceived by Ariana Wolf as a way to grapple with heartache. Both her personal heartache surrounding the end of her marriage and a global heartache for the disconnect she saw in the divisiveness across political lines and as more and more individuals withdraw into technology while seeming to connect less in real life.
“After the end of my 17-year marriage I felt so alone in my life. As I looked out to the world for solace it felt like there was a lack of real, meaningful connection throughout our culture. Hatred was being spewed through racial injustice, basic humanity was not being offered to those most in need, and all the while people seemed to be retreating more and more into themselves. I started walking. Walking to get out of my head. Walking with my Cannon A1. There started to be these moments that I would notice. Moments between strangers. Between a mother and her child, between brothers, between lovers. These moments gave me hope. So I started capturing them on film. I started calling them stranger romance.”
Thus the Stranger Romance Project was born. Expanding the project she called for submissions of images capturing unexpected moments of connection. One artist responded to her request, saying “I don’t think I have a lot of Stranger Romance captured, but I sure have a lot of Lonely Strangers.” In that moment she knew the juxtaposing theme needed to be explored as well.
“Of course I needed to also show the lonely and disconnect that is such a shared human experience. That was the motivation behind looking for romance in the first place. The second Wade shared that idea, I knew he was on to something”
The Stranger Project was slated to exhibit at a gallery in San Francisco in fall of 2020, but with Shelter in Place the gallery ended up closing its doors and cancelling all shows. Yet this body of work and themes seemed even more reflective of this time and so a small publication was created.
A two sided flip book with Stranger Romance and Lonely Stranger meeting in the middle. 22-artists are featured throughout as well as a curation of Craigslists missed connections, the ultimate stranger romance. Produced through Ariana’s design studio Flight Design Co. It is available for sale in their shop.
Download images of the project via Dropbox here.
Credits
Curated by Ariana Wolf (IG: @simply_ariana)
Published by Flight Design Co. (IG: @flightdesign)
Designed by Matt Meikle (IG: @tenovertwelve)