WEBVTT 00:00:01.131 --> 00:00:02.865 [Wind Blows] 00:00:02.865 --> 00:00:08.284 Steve Hartman: 45 year old Richard Renaldi is looking for someone, two someones, actually. 00:00:08.284 --> 00:00:11.284 Two total strangers who are meant to be together. 00:00:11.284 --> 00:00:12.651 Renaldi: This is Dominic, right? 00:00:12.651 --> 00:00:14.320 Hartman: If only for a moment. 00:00:14.320 --> 00:00:16.617 Renaldi: Okay, so you guys are gonna be a- a couple. 00:00:16.617 --> 00:00:20.589 Renaldi (in interview): They're not exactly sure what they've just signed up for- 00:00:20.589 --> 00:00:21.759 Renaldi (on street): Actually 00:00:21.759 --> 00:00:23.979 Renaldi (in interview): And people are a little nervous at first. 00:00:23.979 --> 00:00:26.718 Renaldi (on street): Okay, I just need you a little closer like-okay, good. 00:00:26.718 --> 00:00:30.372 Narrator: Richard is a New York photographer, working on a series of portraits. 00:00:30.372 --> 00:00:31.656 Renaldi: Okay, good. 00:00:31.656 --> 00:00:33.671 Hartman: For each shot, he grabs strangers off the street. 00:00:33.671 --> 00:00:39.511 Like Jenny Wood, an airline employee from Virginia, and Dominic Tucker, a college student from Brooklyn. 00:00:39.511 --> 00:00:42.367 And poses them - like adoring family. 00:00:42.367 --> 00:00:45.040 Renaldi (on street): Okay um, beautiful. 1,2, and 3. 00:00:45.040 --> 00:00:46.514 Camera snaps 00:00:46.514 --> 00:00:49.086 Hartman: Richard calls the project 'Touching Strangers.' 00:00:49.086 --> 00:00:53.735 He started shooting it 6 years ago, and now has hundreds of portraits of these unlikely intimates. 00:00:53.735 --> 00:00:57.930 Some of the photos- you'd never know, they'd never met. 00:00:57.930 --> 00:01:03.283 While other capture, quite well, the inherrent awkwardness of cudding some random dude. 00:01:03.283 --> 00:01:05.031 Young women (in unison): Hey there, nice to meet you. 00:01:05.031 --> 00:01:10.141 Hartman: Even when the subjects seem eager, their body language often concedes a certain hesitance, 00:01:10.141 --> 00:01:15.534 At least at first. Ten minutes later, though, it's like Thanksgiving at Aunt Margaret's. 00:01:15.534 --> 00:01:17.480 And that's the really weird thing. 00:01:17.480 --> 00:01:19.184 Renaldi (on street): Oh that's great! 00:01:19.184 --> 00:01:25.034 Hartman: Yes, Richard puts the people in these poses, but the sentiment that seems to shine through, is real. 00:01:25.034 --> 00:01:27.021 At least, so say the subjects. 00:01:27.021 --> 00:01:28.297 Renaldi (on street): Okay. 00:01:28.297 --> 00:01:30.161 Older woman: It was sort of awkward but then sort of not. 00:01:30.161 --> 00:01:32.284 Young women: Thank You! Renaldi: You guys did so good. 00:01:32.284 --> 00:01:34.952 Older woman: We are probably missing so much about the people all around us. 00:01:34.952 --> 00:01:36.334 Renaldi (on street): This is Reiko. 00:01:36.334 --> 00:01:40.905 Hartman: At first, Brian Snedon, a poetry teacher, saw no rhyme or reason for posing 00:01:40.905 --> 00:01:44.442 with 95 year-old retired fashion designer Reiko Urman. 00:01:44.442 --> 00:01:47.783 Renaldi (on street): Can you just come in a little more - yeah, okay. 00:01:47.783 --> 00:01:50.369 Hartman: But eventually he too felt a change. 00:01:50.369 --> 00:01:52.367 Brian: I felt like I cared for her. 00:01:52.367 --> 00:01:53.785 Hartman: Cared for her? 00:01:53.785 --> 00:01:55.785 Brian: Yeah. I felt like it brought down a lot of barriers. 00:01:55.785 --> 00:01:57.588 Hartman: Pretty much everyone shared that same sentiment. 00:01:57.588 --> 00:01:59.590 Young man: It was a good feeling. Laughs shyly 00:01:59.590 --> 00:02:01.225 Young woman: It was nice to feel that comfort. 00:02:01.225 --> 00:02:05.328 Renaldi (in interview): Everyone seems to have come away with kind of a good feeling. 00:02:05.328 --> 00:02:08.898 It's kind of lovely. It's lovely! 00:02:08.898 --> 00:02:11.736 Hartman: Most photographers capture life as it is. 00:02:11.736 --> 00:02:17.784 But in these strangers, Richard Renaldi has captured something much more ethereal and elusive. 00:02:17.784 --> 00:02:20.812 He shows us humanity- as it could be. 00:02:20.812 --> 00:02:23.680 As most of us wish it would be. 00:02:23.680 --> 00:02:29.534 And, as it was. At least for this one fleeting moment in time. 00:02:29.534 --> 00:02:33.317 Steve Hartman, on the road, in New York.