‘I’m not asking anything from them. I want to give them something. In exchange, I get to learn about them, and hear their story.” — Justin Veermer
Once or twice a week Justin Veenema will stand at a busy Vancouver intersection with two cameras sitting low on his hip while he watches people go by.
He’s waiting for a vibe. Veenema lets dozens, or sometimes hundreds of people pass before he finds the right person, couple, or dog to photograph.
Article content
“I look for people who I think have a story to share, people that look interesting or smart or fun. I try to pick up on someone’s vibe, and that leads my decision.”
Advertisement 2
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Veenema, 36, started approaching strangers in Vancouver 65 days ago, asking for permission to take their photos and posting them on Instagram. His reasons were personal.
The project offered him a way to deal with his social anxiety, to reach across the invisible gap that separates strangers from each other.
In a matter of weeks, the photos he took for his Stranger Project (@justin.veenema on Instagram) were garnering thousands of views.
Although one clip of a woman walking a bunny has almost 20 million views, he doesn’t have any ambition to become an influencer. “My goal is just to connect with people, share my photography, meet cool people and make friends,” said Veenema.
After growing up in Chatham, Ont., he moved to Vancouver in his 20s to work in tech, and was captivated by its mix of people and cultures. “I loved it, I’d never seen anything like it,” said Veenema.
After a few years, he left to explore other cities. When he returned to Vancouver last year, he found it was more difficult to meet people than he remembered.
“That Vancouver coldness was rubbing off on me. It wasn’t as easy as it was before.”
Sunrise
Article content
Advertisement 3
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Yet, all around him he saw interesting people. “Everyone looked like they had a story to tell. But I couldn’t just walk up to them on the street.”
With a camera in hand, that changed.
“This is a way for me to open that conversation. I’m not asking anything from them. I want to give them something. In exchange, I get to learn about them, and hear their story.”
At the core of the project is the desire for connection. “Everyone is feeling isolated. But after I approach someone, we make a connection.”
Among the stories his photos tell, the one with the most surprising plot twist is the story of Vancouver itself.
“You hear that Vancouver is a cold and unfriendly city,” said Veenema. “It’s not true. People want to connect. I thought 90 per cent of people I approached would say no. Turns out 90 per cent of people say yes.”
Veenema shoots with two cameras, an 85 mm Sony A74 and a 35mm Sony ZVE1, and an Insta 360 Go 3 that records his interaction with the people he approaches.
Every portrait tells a story of how to make strangers into friends. The tension of introduction — “Sorry to bother you, I’m a photographer. Is it OK if I take a photo of you?” — is the leap off a cliff, but the risk of rejection almost always leads to connection.
Advertisement 4
Story continues below
This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below.
Article content
Some are hesitant, or shy. Others don’t believe they are photogenic.
“That negative self-talk of not being good enough, or not being worthy — I really want to change that. I prove them wrong.”
His video clips sometimes include the moment he shows a once-hesitant stranger how they look through Veenema’s eyes.
“So beautiful,” one woman gasps, as if through Veenema’s lens she has seen herself for the very first time.
It’s part of what makes Veenema’s Stranger Project so compelling: that moment of recognition, where someone is no longer a stranger to themself.
Recommended from Editorial
Bookmark our website and support our journalism: Don’t miss the news you need to know — add VancouverSun.com and TheProvince.com to your bookmarks and sign up for our newsletters here.
You can also support our journalism by becoming a digital subscriber: For just $14 a month, you can get unlimited access to The Vancouver Sun, The Province, National Post and 13 other Canadian news sites. Support us by subscribing today: The Vancouver Sun | The Province.
Article content
Man pleads guilty to 2023 shooting that left a man …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Jury convicts woman in death of infant child
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
2nd attempt denied to keep man accused of graduation …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
KRQE Cares Food for Kids
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Developer announces plans for new boutique hotel …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Officials warn the public to be careful as fire season …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Local celebrity chef teaches culinary arts to New …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Foster parents needed to provide temporary homes …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Video shows moments teen opened fire at Coronado …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Albuquerque mayor sounds off about city council proposals, …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
New multigenerational center to be built in northwest …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
APD files additional charges against suspect following …
.cls-3{fill:#fff;fill-rule:evenodd}
Credits: Far Out / Library of Congress’s Prints and Photographs division
The first glimmers of women’s suffrage emerged in the late 1800s, leading to the rise of feminism in the following years. Women were fed up with being treated like children and campaigned for their right to vote, to be treated equally to men, and to be able to work and earn money in jobs not typically reserved for women.
Women were often denied from the creative arts, despite the fact that mediums such as weaving and sewing have been specifically associated with women for centuries. When photography emerged as a new form of art and communication, it was harder for women to be taken seriously. Thus, it’s important to look back at the pioneering women who stood in the face of adversity and wielded their cameras.
Frances Benjamin Johnston was a seminal figure in the history of photography, although, as she unashamedly admitted, she was more interested in using the medium as a job to earn her financial freedom rather than as a creative outlet. Still, her photographs are beautiful, and during her career, she made many important contributions to the development of photography, as well as encouraging other women to engage in the medium.
Born in 1864, Johnston was lucky enough to be brought up around wealth and connection – her interest in photography was sparked by a family friend, George Eastman, who helmed the Kodak company. Yet, she used these privileges to her advantage, quickly capturing high-profile subjects like Mark Twain and Theodore Roosevelt with her lens and subsequently proving that women were more than capable of being independent and career-driven.
She embodied the New Woman, a feminist idea that advocated for women’s rights and autonomy. The New Woman studied at university, rode bicycles, wore more practical clothing, and secured jobs in high positions, which gave them economic independence.
Johnston even made a photograph called ‘The New Woman’, in which she exposed a leg from beneath her dress (although it is clothed) and held a cigarette. She hardly looks like a subservient object – she’s ready to get up and assert herself in the world, which she certainly did. The photographer mainly photographed people and architecture, and throughout her career, she also focused on taking pictures of African American communities and figures, working alongside the civil rights activist W.E.B. Du Bois.
Johnston clearly used her position as an acclaimed photographer to involve herself in important periods of American history, capturing a time that was rapidly changing for African American people, women, and Native Americans. Her series of photos taken at the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute depicts black students engaging in education. The school was founded just a few decades prior in order to provide learning opportunities for previously enslaved men and women, and it continued to develop into an educational hub, which Johnston’s camera perfectly captured.
She also didn’t conform to heteronormative standards, engaging in a relationship with a woman named Mattie Hewitt. Johnston even photographed herself dressed as a man on one occasion, standing by a penny-farthing bicycle in trousers – which was not a common form of clothing for women at the time – while also wearing a masculine hat and a stick-on moustache. The photographer set out to do things differently, and in the process, she encouraged other women to join her, which she advocated for by setting up an exhibition of female photographers. She deserves to be remembered for her contributions to photography, especially during a time when it was considerably harder than it is today for women to be taken seriously.
MTSU’s Photography program prepares students for commercial, artistic, and photojournalistic career paths. Prospective professional opportunities include
Comments