While most people attended this year's Roskilde Festival in Denmark to chill with the music and the vibe, photographer Johanna Siring took it one step further. She wanted to document the free-spirited mentality at the festival, which resulted in a project where she shot portraits of strangers before and after kissing them.
The photographer would approach her subject (no matter the gender or race) to take the first portrait and then after she would explain her idea before asking them for a consensual kiss. Amazingly, people drop their consciously created roles and just become themselves. And there might even be a biological explanation to this: "Kissing sparks all the nerve endings in your lips," Johanna explains to i-D magazine, "causing a release of dopamine and a surge in oxytocin. It's an instantaneous stress reliever and creates an immediate emotional bond between two people."
The New York- based Norwegian artist turned these shots into a series called "Kiss of a Stranger," through which she wants to communicate how easily we can connect with new people. "We are all just human beings with the same basic instincts. By creating new relationships and learning about the thoughts and ideas of strangers, we might be able to build bridges and combat ignorance and judgement,” Johanna told i-D.
More info: johannasiring.com | Instagram | Facebook (h/t: i-D)
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"Photographer Shoots Strangers Before & After Kissing Them". If you ignore the context of photography, the title sounds a whole lot less positive :O
There is a video of a beautiful women kissing unexpected men.... I feel like that GIF would be funny here.
Load More Replies...I think the smiles aren't so much the kiss but the sort of awkward/funny aftermath, I think if because they know its going to happen, it makes it funny/awkward hence the reaction, I think if they didn't know the reaction would definitely be more puzzled/shocked!
I suppose it helps that the photographer is an attractive woman and not some greasy troll.
kind of "women only" project, if you are a male photographer, that will not be possible.
Remember this day ?? But not today... You'll get behind the Bar... LMAO
I think I would have like to have seen the photos? Where were they?
I wish I could get away with kissing people before I photographed them, but think I'd end up in hospital! lol
All of these people are handsome, beautiful? Each one of them has an interesting face and the author of this action has chosen such people on purpose - that's my opinion. There were plenty of people, but I WONDER if photographer Johanna Siring thought about kissing a normal, regular girl or boy from that festival. All i see is just pretty happy faces.
So how did she do it? If she asked first, then this is all staged. She should have walked up to them, talked briefly then kissed them when they weren't expecting it. Of course, that wouldn't work in the U.S. because most likely if it was a girl she'd scream sexual harassment or even worse.."RAAAAAPE".
So great! Makes me want to go try it but probably would be the pics in reverse LOL
I'd be curios to try this with a twist:. A series of three photos: Initial contact / after a hug / after a kiss. It would be interesting to see which gets a mit remarkable (visual) response.
I have tried this out asking the students in my school to hug each other, when I was taking group pictures. The transformation was amazing, they were the best pictures. I love it. Who wouldn't be happy to get a hug or a kiss? Let's just do it!!
I have seen social experiments like that and it is amazing what a difference just a hug makes to people these days. We are all so hung up on the sexual aspect of touching each other especially younger people that we forget that human touch is very powerfully just as an emotional stress reliever and comforter. My brother died five days ago. It is amazing how much the nurses hugs meant to me even though I didn't know them.
Load More Replies...It takes guts to kiss someone you don't know. For the sake of entertainment, now that's gutsy!
A male photographer would get punched, slapped or hurt in a different way in about 90% cases. I'm sure of it (I'd most likely punch him myself).
She didn't enforce a kiss on them, she explained it first. Read text, before bursting with negative.
Load More Replies..."Photographer Shoots Strangers Before & After Kissing Them". If you ignore the context of photography, the title sounds a whole lot less positive :O
There is a video of a beautiful women kissing unexpected men.... I feel like that GIF would be funny here.
Load More Replies...I think the smiles aren't so much the kiss but the sort of awkward/funny aftermath, I think if because they know its going to happen, it makes it funny/awkward hence the reaction, I think if they didn't know the reaction would definitely be more puzzled/shocked!
I suppose it helps that the photographer is an attractive woman and not some greasy troll.
kind of "women only" project, if you are a male photographer, that will not be possible.
Remember this day ?? But not today... You'll get behind the Bar... LMAO
I think I would have like to have seen the photos? Where were they?
I wish I could get away with kissing people before I photographed them, but think I'd end up in hospital! lol
All of these people are handsome, beautiful? Each one of them has an interesting face and the author of this action has chosen such people on purpose - that's my opinion. There were plenty of people, but I WONDER if photographer Johanna Siring thought about kissing a normal, regular girl or boy from that festival. All i see is just pretty happy faces.
So how did she do it? If she asked first, then this is all staged. She should have walked up to them, talked briefly then kissed them when they weren't expecting it. Of course, that wouldn't work in the U.S. because most likely if it was a girl she'd scream sexual harassment or even worse.."RAAAAAPE".
So great! Makes me want to go try it but probably would be the pics in reverse LOL
I'd be curios to try this with a twist:. A series of three photos: Initial contact / after a hug / after a kiss. It would be interesting to see which gets a mit remarkable (visual) response.
I have tried this out asking the students in my school to hug each other, when I was taking group pictures. The transformation was amazing, they were the best pictures. I love it. Who wouldn't be happy to get a hug or a kiss? Let's just do it!!
I have seen social experiments like that and it is amazing what a difference just a hug makes to people these days. We are all so hung up on the sexual aspect of touching each other especially younger people that we forget that human touch is very powerfully just as an emotional stress reliever and comforter. My brother died five days ago. It is amazing how much the nurses hugs meant to me even though I didn't know them.
Load More Replies...It takes guts to kiss someone you don't know. For the sake of entertainment, now that's gutsy!
A male photographer would get punched, slapped or hurt in a different way in about 90% cases. I'm sure of it (I'd most likely punch him myself).
She didn't enforce a kiss on them, she explained it first. Read text, before bursting with negative.
Load More Replies...