Message from the Director
BOARD OF ADVISORS
Kathleen Beaulieu
Matthew T. Dattilo
Rev. Patrick Dorsey, S.J.
Marsha Goldstein
Nevin Hedlund
Virginia Hogan
Vadim Katznelson
Lema Khorshid
Maureen Lampert
Ellen Landgraf
Peter LoGiudice
Darlene Markovich
Judy McCaskey
Denis M. McNamara
Denise Noell
Francesca Parvizyar
Robert Roemer
René Romero Schuler
Maria Simon
Alexandria Speers
Gayle Tilles
Debra Yates
EX-OFFICIO:
Pamela E. Ambrose
Director of Cultural Affairs
Loyola University Chicago
Rev. Michael J. Garanzini, S.J.
President and CEO
Loyola University Chicago
Dear LUMA Members:
Too often we look at strangers as different—not
of the same background, race, or socio-economic
status—and think that because these individuals
appear to be so unlike us, we can have nothing
in common. Yet, it is when we are put in close
proximity to one another that we discover just how
much we actually share.
Since 2007, Richard Renaldi has been working
on a series of photographs that involve approaching
complete strangers and asking them to physically
interact with one another while posing for a portrait.
Working on the street with a large format, 8-by-10-
inch view camera, Renaldi encounters the subjects
for his photographs in towns and cities across the
United States. He poses strangers in intimate ways—
ways that people are usually taught to reserve for
their close friends and loved ones. Renaldi creates
spontaneous and fleeting relationships between
strangers for the camera, often pushing his subjects
beyond their comfort levels. These relationships
may only last for the moment the shutter is released,
but the resulting photographs are moving and
provocative. They raise profound questions about
the possibilities for positive human connection in
a diverse society.
Cover details:
Shalom and Jeff, 2013, Brooklyn, NY, from
Touching Strangers
(Aperture, May 2014). © Richard Renaldi.
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