Catherine and Anne

Name	Catherine	Anne
Religion	N/A	Don't Think So
Occupation	Waiter/Musician	Production Assistant
Political Affiliation	Liberal	Liberal 'til Death
Marital Status	In Love	Probably

x.
a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family

Various Artists - A Party of Special Things To Do

UPDATED: Become a "fan" of the project on Facebook. 

ps. you Divinity School kids know how to throw down.

It was an incredibly productive night for Kissing Strange. As was pointed out in the comments, Alexis and I seem to be playing to our comfort zone at this moment. This seems true to a certain extent as most of the people kissing, especially in this set, are the same age. Physical attributes like Age, Beauty and Ethnicity are the "instant gratification" aspects of meeting a stranger, beyond that it's anybody's guess. On the surface it may appear that we are making the obvious connections, if you look behind the curtain there is something altogether different.

I did an interview with Matt Brandau (married) who refused to be photographed.

J: Why won't you kiss somebody? It doesn't have to be on the lips. 

Matt: It is simply not okay. Cheating is defined by the significant other and until you get the okay...don't do it.

J: Even blowing a kiss to someone in a photo?

Matt: Well, what does that mean to an outside observer? Blowing a kiss to me is like love. 

J: But not all kisses mean love. I see what you are saying though, it is going to depend on the person. What does a kiss mean to you?

Matt: A kiss is a symbol of love and affection. It is something personal and sensitive - and it can be passionate- but it should be reserved for the person you are "with."

J: How about the person you are with, tell me about your first kiss with her or your first kiss ever.

Matt: You are going to love this. I was 12, playing spin the bottle and [laughs] she totally dissed me. I was a 12 year old boy and she was a 12 year old girl which means we were like 10 years apart. The bottle landed on us and I leaned in for a peck and then there was more than just a peck. She said to me "Damn you don't know how to kiss...I gotta teach you." 18 years later and we are married.

Matt and his band The Old Ceremony are playing Cat's Cradle on Valentine's Day.

You can see the big versions on My Flickr

Valeria and Dan

Dan: I got sprayed with beer and then I got to kiss a pretty girl. Not a bad night. 

Warren and Aleksandra

Warren: I'm gay, but you are beautiful. I will definitely kiss you. 

Nicole and Julie

J [to Julie]: I know you asked me to find a boy...

Jeanie and Bobby (blogspot)

.

Jeanie: I'm engaged, but you have been making me dance.

Ashley and Julian

Julian: Let me see the [first] photo. No no no. We have to do that again. 

Amy and Nathan

 

J [to Amy]: ...It doesn't have to be on the lips, it could be an air kiss, kiss on the forehead, eskimo kiss...

Friends: ESKIMO KISS!!! [Amy is from Alaska]

Amy: Okay. Eskimo kiss.

*Party Erupts*

Send us your thoughts. kissingstrange@gmail.com

x

-j

kissingstrange.blogspot.com

www.kissingstrange.com

Because we're all family

Stefan And Stephanie

I love the names. 

I had an opportunity to interview Stefan about a few things. He was really enthusiastic about the project and mentioned his brother lives up in NY so, if all goes to plan, we can get Stefan's brother in the book too. Small world.

J: Tell me about your first kiss.

Stefan I was 17 and a freshman in college at Swarthmore. I had just come from a non-competitive hockey game where I was manager. I came back to campus with a beautiful Bulgarian sophomore from the team and she and I kissed on the whispering bench.

J: I love those. The acoustics let you talk to each other from across the room with only a whisper. Now the big philosophical question...What is kiss? Why do you think the kiss is part of our culture and social evolution?

Stefan: I guess in a way it is all about closeness and comfort. The mouth is intended for clean things and so to be close to someone your mouth becomes an indication of how you are with a person you are kissing. In a way the kiss is a manifestation of your inside or outside self, in the philosophical sense, the more you are comfortable and close with someone the more you let them inside and the mouth is a conduit for that. 

x

-j

kissingstrange.blogspot.com

www.kissingstrange.com

Because we're all family

Amy and Donald

Name	Amy	Donald
Religion Country of Origin	Dreamer USA	Jewish Los Angeles
Occupation	Actor/Dancer	Kids Dentist
Political Affiliation	None Listed	Conservative
Marital Status	Single	Married 45 Years

x.
a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family

Gloria and Mohamed

At 8:46am, in the frigid cold of the morning, Gloria and Mohamed came together under the scaffolding at Prince and Mercer streets in NYC to bridge worlds.

Name	Gloria	Mohamed
Country of Origin Religion	Peru Muslim	Nigeria Catholic
Occupation	House Cleaner	Security Guard
Political Affiliation	"I clean the houses and babysit sometimes, too."	Democrat
Marital Status	Laughs: "I am still looking."	After an uncertain pause: "Single."

x.
a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family

I Feel The Rain And It's Telling Me To Go Far

A rainy and dismal day in Durham, i hoped for snow that never came.

I was really tired this morning after staying up all last night waiting for an email from a Vogue Hommes Japan about printing my recent Animal Collective photos in their upcoming issue. I started my morning with my radio show (Meow Mix) on WXDU and did a photo shoot with Tiffany directly after.

Maybe it was the fatigue or the fact that I had a camera on me, but I began seeing everyone as a possible subject. So I stopped at whole foods and started "shopping". Eventually I was successful, but I had to ask a few people first.

A young woman who seemed genuinely interested in the project until I mentioned the kissing and she claimed "to have a headache". A mother of two adorable children seemed perplexed at first and then refused because she said she was not photogenic (untrue and I tried to convince her otherwise). A middle aged man who wished me luck but refused on account of his "very jealous wife". I explained that the kiss did not have to involve physical contact, but he still refused. I sent a text to alexis that read "it is much easier to convince people in a bar to kiss".

Yet, I think rejection is something Alexis and I need to get more accustomed to because we are asking people to let their guard down. In a way I wish I could capture the moment on people's faces when I say "but in our photos, the two subjects are kissing". Maybe we lack credibility at this moment because we don't yet have our Mini Moo's or we are unpracticed on delivering what the essence of our project is. Both will come with time.

I eventually ran into Gillian (No Profession Listed) and Walter (Physician's Assistant). Gillian made it clear 

i will not put my lips on a stranger.

The two of them blew an awkward and yet endearing kiss to one anther in the produce department.

view flickr

I know both were rushing to finish their shopping and didn't have time to stop and do an interview, so to Gillian, Walter and everyone else who might be reading this blog, write to us at kissingstrange@gmail.com. We would love to hear your thoughts on why the kiss is so important or what your favorite kiss has been or the story of your first kiss.

x

-j

kissingstrange.blogspot.com

Because we're all family

Snow Day

Photo by Cig Harvey

It is Wednesday, 7:59am, and I am sitting at my desk in my apartment, thankful for the moment I have here before the day hoists itself upon me with the weight of wet clothes. There is a beautiful snow falling in New York City. It's amazing how snow seems so instinctively to represent childhood for so many people. Perhaps it's because it is simple and light. Perhaps it's because, if only for a moment, it forces even the most hurried of people and cities to slow down. It is nice to slow down. 

Like snow, Cig Harvey's photography forces one to slow down. It is delicately arresting in its childlike imagery. While a very proficient commercial photographer for clients like Kate Spade, it is Harvey's personal work that really captivates me. In it she features the softer side of life with her colors and compositions. I like nostalgic looking pictures and nostalgic ways of life and Cig emulates both, as shown in her work (An Archeology of Distraction) and her home (her new series 350 Main Street is shot in around her Maine farmhouse). 

While I definitely gravitate toward the nostalgic- Eggleston, Strand, etc.- what I love about Kissing Strange is that it has no temporal limitations. It is boundaryless. This is another wonderful aspect of collaboration: you are guaranteed to get a taste of many flavors, times, ideas, styles. I am very excited by Jay's photo of Lisa and Adam, for example. It is a flavor I would not have discovered on my own and something about it, this student and this Army man, really touches me. While I am deeply mired in some very stressful, very frenetic pre-pre-production at work, I hope to create a touching moment of my own out in the world today, bringing two strangers together in a kiss, somewhere in the snow.

x.

a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family

Winter's Embrace

Alexis and I have been receiving an outpouring of support for this project in recent days. I am really humbled by all the kind words. I hope that any of you that find this project inspiring/crazy/wonderful that you will check back to our blog/flickr page frequently and will pass on the website address to a friend or, even better, volunteer to be part of the photodocumentary project. 

"This is a brilliant, beautiful idea. And what a perfect moment in history for a project like this. Many congrats on this!" -Richard L.

Since some of you may never get a chance to meet Alexis or I in person, I think it would be a great idea to utilize this blog as a means to capture your thoughts and feelings about the kiss. Every so often we will post a new (open-ended) question, like the one below, and we would love to hear from you, just drop us a line at kissingstrange@gmail.com (please sign off with your FULL First name and First Initial of your Last Name).

Tell us about your most memorable kiss.

x

-j

kissingstrange.blogspot.com

Because we're all family.

Lisa and Adam

This is my first photographic contribution to Kissing Strange and it is, without a doubt, perfect. A milestone for the project. The first image of many. If the enthusiasm I felt from the first group of subjects is any indication, this project will be a huge success. I am sure there will be down moments, but right now I am soaring.

Lisa (Student) and Adam (Army)

view flickr

I talked to some of Adam's friends who were incredibly supportive and interested in the project and I asked them the "big" open-ended question....What does a kiss mean to you?

In one way or another it is a connection. Be it friends or foes...I've kissed enemies, but ultimately it is about connecting. -Andria L. 

Short interview 01-26-09/Bull McCabe's Irish Pub (Durham, NC)

JC: Tell me about your first kiss.

Lisa P. [Beaming] I was 18 and in the UK in a town near Cambridge at the School of English. There was this guy from Barcelona - [Lisa herself is from Spain] - in the class and we started flirting and on one night, with a full moon and stars everywhere in a garden by the manor house we started kissing slow at first and then more and more and more and more and it was great. I am still friends with him.

JC: How about you, Adam, when was your first kiss and what was it like?

Adam M. [Red in the face and being teased by his friends a little]. I was twelve, no, 13, and her name was...what was her name?...Leah! We were hanging out at church and we snuck off to the back room and made out for a while. It was sweet. 

I am hoping that once Alexis and I hit our stride with this projects and the venue is suitable, we can get more extensive interviews, but even short ones seem to tell the tale -- an intensely private and important moment in their lives, one they have not probably thought about in years. In some respects I did not need their answers, their fidgeting and almost electrified body language was more than enough.

To reiterate what Alexis wrote in her last blog post: To all of you, I am moved and extremely grateful. Keep spreading the word and if you or anyone you know would like to participate by being on camera, please reach out. J and I are on the boundary-breaking hotline. We can be found by clicking our pictures below the About This Project box to the right, or you can just email us at kissingstrange@gmail.com.

x

-j

kissingstrange.blogspot.com

Because we're all family

Here, Have a Mini-Moo!

There are many things that move me in life- the Four Seasons by Vivaldi, dark skies before a Midwestern storm, water lapping against the hull of a boat anchored in a lagoon- but nothing moves as much as one human being moving another. To that end, thank you Ari Folman for Waltz with Bashir.

I haven’t spent much of my time pondering this point but it is an observation that has crystallized for me in the making of this project, evidenced by my reaction to the comments and feedback J and I have received since announcing Kissing Strange. People I know from my hometown in Iowa; people I don’t know from towns I've never heard of in Croatia; people who have been lurking in the woodwork of my past here in New York; they have all crawled to the fore to express support and appreciation for the objectives of this work. To all of you, I am moved and extremely grateful. Keep spreading the word and if you or anyone you know would like to participate by being on camera, please reach out. J and I are on the boundary-breaking hotline. We can be found by clicking our pictures below the About This Project box to the right, or you can just email us at kissingstrange@gmail.com.

So the status update for today is as follows: I realized that the next month of my life is going to be absolutely hectic. I’ve been given an inordinately minimal amount of time to produce 2-5 television commercials shooting in Los Angeles in the coming weeks. While under normal circumstances this might frustrate me, it presently excites me to no end. Think of all the kissing strangers I will encounter! And think of all the good weather! I'll have every crew member kissing every extra and/or passing gawker I can find, believe you me. 

In an effort not to come off as a perverse voyeur who just walks around setting people up for awkward shots, J and I have, quite wisely I think, decided to invest in some business cards- mini-moos, as explained later- to give the strangers we approach a taste of what this project is all about. I like to think of them as Mentos- refreshing, minty ice breakers. "Here, have a mini-moo!" 

We hope these cards will buy us some legitimacy when we pounce on people from the backs of public park benches and such. The beauty of the internet is that one minute you can say, "Hey, I want some business cards with a picture on it to disarm those I pounce on in public parks!" and the next minute, you can have it. It is for this same reason that I can say with certainty that regardless of whether a publisher backs Kissing Strange as a book, it will absolutely one day be a book. Self-publishing is just that easy now a days. All we can hope is that you will buy said book, but more on that later.... Back to the cards.

After a test printing I did some time ago with moo.com, J and I went ahead and ordered a few, or a hundred, mini-moo cards from them. (In the name of full disclosure, I'll add that J and I in NO WAY receive ANY KIND of ANYTHING from moo.com, outside of the cards we actually order, and pay for. When they start paying us, we’ll know we’ve made it and we'll be absolutely sure to rub it in your faces.) Above is the design of the first printing of cards I ordered. It's pretty much what you see on the site. More exciting will be J's printing, which will feature one of his fine photographs, a photograph that, if we're lucky and if the little text message fairy is right, may also be revealed on the site later tonight. 

Stay tuned!


x.
a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family

Taking Shape

It’s been an exciting few days as J and I have begun fleshing out this project. It’s a rare and wonderful thing to find someone with whom collaboration is so effortless and whose every artistic idea resonates so fully with your own. I have had that good fortune with J. When we start bouncing ideas off each other, the energy is engrossing, inspiring and infectious, which explains why I am up writing at midnight when I was supposed to be sleeping an hour ago. Two of the many concepts circulating in our conversations of late are those of subject identification and both written and recorded documentation. By subject identification, we draw our inspiration from Levi Ward’s "At Work" series.

I came across Ward’s site because he was lovely enough to credit me when using one of my photographs on his blog. As I wandered through the content of his other posting, including his At Work series, my eye was caught by the captions that went with his photographs, each telling of his subjects’ various professions. It was a small but captivating detail, one that both J and I felt would greatly further the aims of our own project.

Kissing Strange is about dissolving borders and boundaries through the act of strangers kissing. By definition, the stranger you kiss is someone you know nothing about: their background, persuasion and social standing are all a mystery to you. How wonderful then for both viewer and subject to discover that a Christian had just kissed a Muslim, a rich man kissed a poor man, a Democrat kissed a liberal, a heterosexual kissed a homosexual, etc.? How wonderful to see each person momentarily step out of the box that defines them? While these interactions will never be forced or manipulated, I suspect we brush up against those who, on paper, we believe we have nothing in common with far more often than not, which goes to show that sometimes our humanity is all we need to have in common to co-exist. Sometimes humanity is enough.

At its heart, this is a documentary project, "a means," as J put it, "to understand the kiss as one of the most important features of human behavior." As much as I hope our photographs will accurately illuminate each individual story and interaction, it would be a shame in a time of such technological accessibility to rob our subjects of their own voices. With that in mind, we will also do our best to collect as much oral documentation by way of interviews and actualities as possible to accompany these photographs and help better tell their stories.

With all that said, it is officially way past my bedtime.
Merry blogging to all, and to all a goodnight.

x.
a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family

Frame Of Reference: How Kissing Strange Came To Be (J's Account)

As it was a few days ago in the city with Alexis - and as it is now - caffeine is taking away the dull sting in my head after a long night. It is those moments of clarity between unconsciousness and waking, sobriety and sloppiness, where this project was born. I have known Alexis for years and this co-authored project is a long time coming.

Kissing Strange, not even in its infancy, started as a drunken text message exchange on NYE, one where we promised to inspire one another more in 2009 and, weeks later, as the haze of an amazing night was lifted, we suddenly realized that this was the project that we were meant to do. Our disparate geographical locations - she in liberal New York, me in quasi-conservative North Carolina - is perhaps the most interesting and challenging aspects of this project. While the backdrops of our photos may be instantly recognizable, my expectation is that the subjects will be universal, from complete willingness to do something for art's sake to curiosity paired with awkward reluctance, and all things in between. The fact that we are different sexes will also likely impact the project; will people be more willing to pose for Alexis because she is female or because she is in Manhattan? 

Our educational backgrounds are also key to this project with Alexis leaning heavily to the artistic endeavors and me having been a scientist most of my life. My scientific training is in understanding animal behavior, and so I am partially viewing this project as a means to understand the kiss as one of most important features of human behavior. We know how connected we feel when we kiss someone, when a child falls we kiss it better, when our lover leaves we kiss them goodbye, when two people are married they kiss; there are countless examples of how the kiss connects us when there is already a level of familiarity. 

We are stripping that familiarity away and taking a reductionist approach to the human condition: can a kiss connect two strangers?

x

-j

http://kissingstrange.blogspot.com

Because we're all family

Kissing Strange: How It Came To Be (Alexis's Account)

Yesterday morning, my friend J and I met for breakfast. J, a scientist who studies the molecular genetics of mechanosensation signaling in North Carolina, was up visiting New York City, where I work as a producer at an advertising agency. We met at Le Pain Quotidien, a restaurant with communal tables where we could sit nursing coffees in the too early morning and talk about one of our many shared passions: photography.

Both new to the craft, we spoke about our favorite artists, websites and equipment and somewhere along the way, J mentioned a series of photos he'd seen on Cool Hunting by a photographer named Richard Renaldi. The series was called Touching Strangers. The concept? Get two strangers to pose together for a photograph. Simple enough, but add to that the instruction that the strangers must to touch and the equation becomes quite a bit more challenging, yet somehow Renaldi managed, in each of the resulting pictures, to capture an ease and familiarity in the posture and relationship of all his subjects.

To touch is to be vulnerable and vulnerability is not always a welcome quality in American society. As an American, I'm plagued by this resistance to be vulnerable, to touch or be touched, but I am equally if not more plagued by the why behind this resistance.

Why it is difficult to touch, to cross this invisible boundary of space? And what if, instead of being asked to touch, strangers were asked to kiss? Would the strangers assume that they must kiss on the lips? Would they kiss cheek to cheek? Or blow a kiss across a room? The mention of a kiss often conjures elements of sexuality, but why? We kiss our parents and children all the time - why should it be awkward for strangers do the same? Are we not all from the same human family, after all?

The Dalai Lama once said, "Compassion can be put into practice if one recognizes the fact that every human being is a member of humanity and the human family regardless of differences in religion, culture, color and creed." What if the answer to war, greed and destruction is as simple as a kiss; a kiss of agape or philia; a kiss that recognizes that we are all in this thing called life, on this thing called earth, together?

These are the thoughts behind Kissing Strange.
Now let's get kissing.

x.
a

kissingstrange.blogspot.com
Because we're all family