For The Love of Strangers

Hi - I'm Narrelle. I'm a portrait and wedding photographer based in Melbourne, Australia, embarking on an exciting project. My personal goal is to shoot portraits for 100 couples, strangers that I meet in the streets of Melbourne, and beyond. The purpose of this blog is to showcase these people and the images I capture.

So, why am I photographing couples that, until 60 seconds before I push the shutter button, I’ve never met?

It all started with a little challenge I’d set myself, to chase away the winter blues, keep the creative juices flowing, and to encourage myself to grow personally as well as photographically.

Inspired by a number of people, and fellow photographers, I decided to take portraits of strangers. You know, random people in the street that had no idea who I was, and had no reason to trust me or assume I was sane. But they let me take their pictures, happily, gratefully even, and I soon found myself hooked. The goal I’d set myself for that first month was a doddle. Well, apart from the first one or two - they were excruciatingly terrifying. But while there was still a pocket of fear carried with me each time I approached someone (there still is) I became almost addicted to the feeling of overcoming that fear, and meeting some truly wonderful and genuine people along the way. So I upped the challenge. I decided to photograph couples. The boyfriend/girlfriend, husband/wife kind of strangers.

I guess I’ve always been intrigued about why we are drawn to certain people and not others, and how two people together will always be different to the next two. There’ll always be an extraordinary uniqueness. Being a wedding photographer I get to experience this often, and it’s my job to capture that uniqueness. But whilst there’s pressure involved in this, there’s also time. A lot more time than I have when I grab two strangers off the street and expect them to reveal a little bit of who they are together. In a few short minutes.

So that’s the challenge for me. That’s what this blog is about. That’s why I’m pushing myself to photograph couples that, until 60 seconds before I push the shutter button, I’ve never met. It’s about capturing the unique, the extraordinary, and the everyday moments between a man and a woman. Moments between strangers in love.