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[Wind Blows]

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Steve Hartman: 45 year old Richard Renaldi is looking for someone, two someones, actually.

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Two total strangers who are meant to be together.

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Renaldi: This is Dominic, right?

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Hartman: If only for a moment.

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Renaldi: Okay, so you guys are gonna be a- a couple.

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Renaldi (in interview): They're not exactly sure what they've just signed up for-

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Renaldi (on street): Actually

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Renaldi (in interview): And people are a little nervous at first.

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Renaldi (on street): Okay, I just need you a little closer like-okay, good.

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Narrator: Richard is a New York photographer, working on a series of portraits.

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Renaldi: Okay, good.

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Hartman: For each shot, he grabs strangers off the street.

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Like Jenny Wood, an airline employee from Virginia, and Dominic Tucker, a college student from Brooklyn.

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And poses them - like adoring family.

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Renaldi (on street): Okay um, beautiful. 1,2, and 3.

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Camera snaps

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Hartman: Richard calls the project 'Touching Strangers.'

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He started shooting it 6 years ago, and now has hundreds of portraits of these unlikely intimates.

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Some of the photos- you'd never know, they'd never met.

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While other capture, quite well, the inherrent awkwardness of cudding some random dude.

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Young women (in unison): Hey there, nice to meet you.

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Hartman: Even when the subjects seem eager, their body language often concedes a certain hesitance,

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At least at first. Ten minutes later, though,[br]it's like Thanksgiving at Aunt Margaret's.

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And that's the really weird thing.

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Renaldi (on street): Oh that's great!

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Hartman: Yes, Richard puts the people in these poses, [br]but the sentiment that seems to shine through, is real.

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At least, so say the subjects.

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Renaldi (on street): Okay.

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Older woman: It was sort of awkward but then sort of not.

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Young women: Thank You! [br]Renaldi: You guys did so good.

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Older woman: We are probably missing so much about the people all around us.

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Renaldi (on street): This is Reiko.

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Hartman: At first, Brian Snedon, a poetry teacher, [br]saw no rhyme or reason for posing

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with 95 year-old retired fashion designer Reiko Urman.

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Renaldi (on street): Can you just come in a little more - yeah, okay.

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Hartman: But eventually he too felt a change.

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Brian: I felt like I cared for her.

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Hartman: Cared for her?

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Brian: Yeah. I felt like it brought down a lot of barriers.

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Hartman: Pretty much everyone shared that same sentiment.

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Young man: It was a good feeling. Laughs shyly

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Young woman: It was nice to feel that comfort.

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Renaldi (in interview): Everyone seems to have come away with kind of a good feeling.

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It's kind of lovely. It's lovely!

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Hartman: Most photographers capture life as it is.

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But in these strangers, Richard Renaldi has captured something much more ethereal and elusive.

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He shows us humanity- as it could be.

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As most of us wish it would be.

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And, as it was. [br]At least for this one fleeting moment in time.

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Steve Hartman, on the road, in New York.