“Like A Painting”: This Wholesome Photo Trend Between Strangers Has The Internet In A Chokehold

The photo of Caitlin she received from a stranger looks like a Renaissance painting, but she tells us that in that moment, she didn’t quite feel like an art model. “I was genuinely having a really tough day,” she tells us.

“It was my second day in Paris alone, and I was travelling for uni. I have a little baby girl all the way back in Australia, so I was thinking about trying to enjoy myself despite missing her. I was reading to take my mind off waiting to FaceTime her.”

Caitlin didn’t expect to start a trend when she shared the photograph on TikTok, but thinks the trend is beautiful. “I think we spend a lot of time trying to curate ‘candid’ moments or moments in general, and it’s a nice idea to capture and share real moments,” she believes.

She sees the beauty of human connection in the trend and believes it’s about much more than just taking pics of strangers in public. “Any nice thing can be twisted into something negative if you try hard enough, but at face value, I genuinely think the trend is fab.”

Caitlin tells us that this experience has led her to pay more attention to her surroundings and look for similar beautiful candid moments. “I’m definitely looking for more opportunities to pay it forward and do the same thing for someone else,” she says.

Moments like these are incredible and prove to us that, as one commenter noted, a stranger can look at a person and see art. Some of the photographs people shared here look like they’ve been taken by professional photographers, but they are, in fact, just accidental snaps someone took on their phone on the street.

While snapping a candid photo like this might seem intrusive, it reflects our innate tendency to people-watch. Experts explain that we, as humans, are social creatures and want to connect and understand others.

Observing them is one thing we can do — if we’re too shy or anxious to approach them, we people-watch and get to know them in a non-intrusive way. It also helps us develop empathy, as we often imagine ourselves in that person’s or people’s shoes as we observe them.

Photographing strangers is similar to people-watching. We get to imagine stories behind two people sitting in a rowboat, creating backgrounds for them as characters and treating the moment like a painting. This is what candid street photography is like. Street photographs look for those uninhibited moments when people don’t know they’re being photographed.

American photographer Joel Meyerowitz called this “bruising the scene.” A photographer’s job, according to him, was to be like a magician wearing an invisibility cloak if they wanted a candid photograph. When a contact is made, you might get a story, consent, and background on your subject, but there’s something magical in not knowing any of it and letting the moment and its subjects speak for themselves.

In this day and age, many people might not want to be photographed without their consent. In many countries, it’s legal to take pictures of people in public places, like on the street. Others, however, such as France, Brazil, South Korea, Switzerland, and Spain, require that a photographer obtain consent from their subject.

Yet, when we ask the people, a slight majority prefer that strangers not take their pictures. Over 50% of respondents in a 2021 academic survey disagreed that it is okay to photograph people on the street. Many worry that their faces will appear on the internet without their consent, as 60% believed a photographer should obtain consent before publishing the photos.

It’s natural to worry about surveillance when everyone around has a camera in their pocket. It’s important to remember that people have the right not to be seen, even if the moment they’re in looks aesthetically pleasing. Social media tends to romanticize the mundane with trends like this, but many people believe that, as long as the photographer’s intentions are right, privacy concerns are unnecessary.

It’s probably safe to assume that many of the “photographers” on this list would gladly delete the photos if their subjects asked. Many artists and professional photographers operate by the same logic. Sally Eden, an artist at Chelsea College of Art, had a TikTok account where she posted videos of strangers as part of her BA Exhibition.

According to her, “the series focuses on reflection and appreciation for the small moments that are so often overlooked within everyday life.” And while some may argue that she’s breaching people’s privacy, she’s not doing anything illegal.

As trainee solicitor Danielle Campbell explained to Huck magazine, freedom of expression in journalism, art, and literature is protected as an exemption in UK data and privacy laws, at least. “At present, the UK has no strict guidelines on filming strangers and posting it online,” Danielle explained, “but in an ever-changing world, it is likely we will start to see cases of this nature beginning to appear.”

Do you have any photographs of this kind in your camera rolls, Pandas? Have you ever come across a moment so beautiful between strangers that you couldn’t help but immortalize it in a photograph? Share your similar pictures with us in the comments! And if you’re in the mood for more gorgeous photography, check out our previous publications on urban street photography and these surreal portraits that blend faces, nature, and architecture.