Don't Talk to Strangers

Brandon Doman asked random strangers to fill up his stack of notebooks - at first in person and later online.

I’ve always been captivated by people’s stories and the amazingly complex lives of the millions of people we pass in a lifetime. In July of 2009 I decided to try to capture a glimpse of these stories of the strangers we pass every day by asking strangers to write a journal entry in my notebook.

When I started this project, I had no idea of the potential for significant emotional connection with a complete stranger—connection through spontaneous intimate discourse. The project quickly became something more than I expected. It became something organic. Something that connects us. People would laugh while they wrote. They would cry. The stories illuminated the strands that connect us all—The beautiful, dirty, scary, and exciting bits of humanity that we hesitate to show strangers.

We often feel alone—all six billion of us. We’ve learned, now more than ever, that being surrounded by people doesn’t keep us from feeling lonely.

A fascinating, if occasionally banal, look into our human condition.