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Richard Renaldi: Touching Strangers

By Peggy Roalf   Thursday April 8, 2010

Richard Renaldi bridges two classic photographic disciplines - portrait and landscape - in a way that creates a third genre, which reflects the American social landscape today. Working with an 8 x 10 camera, he places the people he encounters squarely in the environments they occupy. Caught on the fly, they offer a momentary gesture, a look, elements of dress and posture to the camera - small details that bring the interior landscape to the foreground.

Traveling cross-country by car, Renaldi finds his subjects in the small towns, cities, tourist spots and beaches that define the American scene. An ongoing body of work, Touching Strangers, goes on view tomorrow at the Gallery of Hermes. This week, Richard replied to an email interview for DART.

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Left to right: Lindsay and Mark, New York, NY 2007; Reginald and Nicole, Los Angeles, CA, 2007; JoAnn, Francis and Loretta Lahaina, Maui, HI, 2009. Copyright Richard Renaldi, courtesy Gallery of Hermes.

Peggy Roalf: Touching Strangers seems to be a departure for you in several ways - from the saturated color palette in many of the shots to the closeness of camera to your subjects to the fact that these are group portraits. When did the idea of pairing up, or in some cases, teaming up strangers come to you?

Richard Renaldi: While I was working on my series Bus Travelers, I would often encounter situations where I felt compelled to photograph groups of people. When shooting with an 8 x 10 camera on a tripod, one generally needs the approval and cooperation of the subjects. Shooting groups in which the subjects are all strangers to each other took some orchestrating on my part, and I found it to be quite a challenge. On both visual and psychological levels, I am interested in the way strangers who occupy the same space relate to one another. I began to wonder how I could push this circumstance further; I thought about what would happen if I asked the subjects in my portraits to touch one another, thus was born Touching Strangers.

Q: Over what period of time did you work on this series?

A: I started this project in 2007 and I am still working on it. I have some thoughts about new and interesting directions that I am hoping to take the concept.

Q: Were most of the people you photographed curious about photography - that is, beyond the idea of snapshots they and their friends and family make?

A: I don't know about that. Occasionally, I have encountered subjects who are knowledgeable about photography but it is most often the passersby who stop while I am setting up my camera to offer their two cents about photography. All of my subjects were open to the idea of touching another person when I explained the concept, and they all seemed to understand what I was trying to do. Most of the people who I photograph are curious about and intrigued by the large format view camera. For most people I think it is something a bit out of the ordinary.

Q: How did your approach to speaking with your subjects change (if it did) as the project progressed? I ask, I suppose, because I wouldn't have thought by looking that your subjects are strangers to one another. When there is some awkwardness there doesn't seem to be any more than there often is between lovers and friends.

A: I became more comfortable asking for what I wanted. I have become good at identifying which people I can push beyond their boundaries, and those who will be more reticent. Sometimes I will give directions, other times I let the chips fall and see what the participants come up with. There are some images where we see a bit of physical recoil. I like the contrast between these images and others where the strangers look like lifelong friends or members of the same family.

Q: Do you ever use Polaroid "preview" shots to engage your subjects in the portrait?

A: No. Only once have I done that, and it was for an advertising campaign. Proofing slows down my process, and the large size of the image on the ground glass makes Polaroids unnecessary.

Q: Did you ask your subjects to talk about themselves as you set up the shots?

A: I am focused on creating the image when I am setting up, so my concentration is directed towards creating the best possible portrait. I prefer to talk with my subjects before or after making a photograph.

Q: Did you line your subjects up in advance or did you photograph them on the spot?

A: They are all made on the spot. I find the first subject(s) and then have them wait next to the camera while I go looking for someone to pair them with.

Q: How much time did you generally spend on a single picture?

A: These take a little longer than my regular portraits. I would say on average 15 minutes.

Q: Was there any difference in the attitude of your subjects to being photographed in small towns vs. big cities?

A: Only insofar as people in small towns have more time, and are not in as much of a hurry.

Q: Did many of your subjects leave the shoot as new friends? Any interesting follow-up stories about continuing relationships?

A: Not that I know of. But if they both have given me email addresses, I will send a copy of the photograph to them on the same email. It's fun to consider oneself as having the powers of a matchmaker, but I think it would be extraordinarily unusual. Perhaps using photography to create relationships is a project for someone else down the line, though digital cameras and internet dating sites have been fairly successful at doing just that.

Q: Did you come away from this process with different ideas about relationships?

A: I think I have come away with some interesting ideas about touch, and my relationship to it. I'm coming to understand that there is something of myself within this work. I'm not exactly sure I understand what it means from a psychological perspective. That I am asking complete strangers to gather in front of my camera and to touch each other must have some deeper relevance to myself.

Q: How many different projects do you generally work on simultaneously?

A: Usually about four or five but these are over very long periods of time. I'm not in a big rush with my projects. Working on something over a long period enables you to learn what you can do to make it a better, stronger body of work.

Q: What are you currently working on?

A: I am working on one on Alaska and Hawaii titled 49 & 50, another one on farms, and a very new landscape project titled This Grand Show. With my partner Seth, I have also started a photo book publishing company called Charles Lane Press. We published our first book Fall River Boys in March of 2009 and we are releasing our second monograph by Allison Davies titled Outerland later this month. I've been very busy with the production of 4 shows that all seem to be happening around the same time, as well as promoting Outerland. I am looking forward to creating new work in the coming months, especially for my landscape project, and taking Touching Strangers to the next phase.

Q: How are you finding the business of self-publishing on the second round?

A: It is a challenge and a delight to put something out there that you love and believe in and know is beautiful. The experience is new and we are still learning. In the end, I think that you do as much as you can to get the word out, but ultimately it is the strength of the work that compels people.

Q: Is there any advice you would offer on self-publishing photo books?

A: I would say if you have the energy, passion, and finances, then it is worth trying. The process of turning a body of work, or an idea, into a book is very much a part of the beautiful and frustrating act of creation.

Richard Renaldi: Touching Strangers opens Friday, April 9th and continues through May 28th. The Gallery at Hermes located on the fourth floor of Hermes, 691 Madison Avenue, New York, NY from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Monday through Saturdays and Thursdays 10:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. The exhibition was curated by Cory Jacobs.

Born in 1968, Richard Renaldi graduated from New York University with a BFA in photography in 1990. He has had solo exhibitions at Yossi Milo Gallery and Debs & Co in New York, and at Jackson Fine Art in Atlanta, among numerous group shows. In 2006 Renaldi's first monograph, Figure and Ground, was published by the Aperture Foundation. His second monograph, Fall River Boys, was published by Charles Lane Press in 2009. He lives and works in New York City.

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