Taking publication form for the first time, How Close Can You Get to a Stranger by Steven Piper is an iterative extension of an ongoing photographic series presenting a selection of images from a total body of work comprising of over 2,000 images captured between 2018 and 2024 from Paris, Étretat, Bordeaux, Arcachon, and Biarritz. The series,
both deeply personal and astutely observational, represents an insight into Piper’s dedicated and sincere approach to photography. With the same tender observation of noticing a flower bud in spring, Piper’s impetus to capture an image is first inspired by an intuition of intimacy - struck by that which is true, timeless, and fleeting.

To him, proximity to the subject is an extension of this fascination with scales of intimacy; Piper oscillates between images that move directly into the subjects personal space (reminiscent of Gary Winogrand’s famously intrusive and imperfect street portraits) and those that capture chance moments from afar, revealing the relationship between subjects and their environment or each other (echoing Henri Cartier-Bresson’s pursuit of a “decisive moment,” where all elements in a scene align in fleeting harmony). In all of these snapshots, Piper foregrounds humor and romance, approaching the camera as a place where wonder acts not only as a driving force but also as a recurring theme within
his work. Approaching his practice with the same evocative attention to a moment’s essence, Piper memorializes chance imperfections (an errant hair, a mistaken flash, or a blur of light) as tributes to a uniting human experience, elevating them from a realm of mundanity to magic.

How Close Can You Get to a Stranger is arranged along this gradient of proximity, bringing the viewer progressively closer to Piper’s recurring subject of choice - the stranger. Far-away landscapes sequentially become intimate portraits: each page taking one, metaphorical step, closer. Piper desires to extend the first encounter with a passerby - to
him, a serendipitous meeting is both an opportunity for sonder and the potential to present oneself authentically, free of preconceived notions. In a contemplative twist of perspectives, Piper invites the viewer to perceive themselves through the eyes of a stranger, as if meeting for the first time - suspending the moment of first recognition, before assumptions take hold. Each image becomes an invitation to enter
this instance: a practice of releasing judgements meant to be carried away, even after stepping beyond the frame.

As a self taught commercial and street photographer, Piper has forged his own path with the goal of uplifting other emerging artists as much as creating a timeless image. Underpinning his visual practice is an inherent sense of gentle generosity that runs through his frames like a guiding current, reflected in the emotions of the moments he chooses to capture. Piper’s subjects recline in leisure, grin without abandon, or fall into each other’s arms in embrace. In deciding to preserve them, he affirms his conviction to an eternal gaze, transforming a split second into an ever-folding encounter. In this way, How Close Can You Get to a Stranger is a love letter, a time capsule, and an offering to the viewer - an insistence that the act of looking is akin to a promise that here, in the
same way a passing moment can become an eternity, we might not be strangers after all.

“To my subjects, you were once a passerby in my life, yet now I look at you, so intently.”