Familiar Strangers

I photograph a lot of people at fringe culture events, sometimes I see them a year later we make eye contact and I can tell they don’t recognize me. This gives me a strange feeling almost like voyeurism, of having something of theirs that is deeply private and sacred.  They don’t know me but I have poured over their face for hours choosing the shot, editing, looking at their face up close and intimate, seeing every laugh line, each scar, the deep feelings in their eyes. I have looked at them every day for a year or more, but when they look back at me all they see is a stranger staring at them like she is in love.