I’m a Stranger Here
2008 - ongoing
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“Can I make a portrait of you?”
This question expresses my desire to extend the momentum of an initial glance—an intuition rooted in wanting to connect with others. When I ask politely for permission, the response is often one of curiosity. The word portrait, along with the presence of a large antique camera, carries an air of ceremony. It neither begs nor explains, but with quiet authority conveys intent. Beneath its calm surface lies persuasion—a subtle assurance that what is about to take place matters.
I’m a Stranger Here is a body of work shaped by slowness, attention, and a quiet sense of place. Made with a large format film camera on a tripod, these portraits emerge from a process that resists urgency. Each photograph is the result of time spent: setting up, sitting together, sharing silence, or exchanging words before the shutter is released.
This approach has long guided my way of working, but it gained deeper meaning after I began to understand Islam. The Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) offered words to something I had felt intuitively for years: “Be in this world as if you were a stranger or a traveler.” That sense of being present but never fully at home—of passing through with humility and care—now grounds both my life and my photography.
The portraits in this series are not about capturing or claiming. They do not presume to reveal. They are, instead, acts of witnessing—each one made with a sensitivity to the unknowability of others and the impermanence of all things. The camera becomes a way of pausing with someone, of holding space rather than filling it.
I’m a Stranger Here is both a spiritual and visual practice. It reflects an ongoing desire to see clearly without possession, to be close without intrusion. In a world oversaturated with images, these photographs offer something slower, quieter—encounters that are temporary, but made with care. They are shaped by a feeling I carry often: of being present, but not fixed. Of belonging nowhere fully. Of being, simply, a stranger here.
- Anthony Hamboussi, 2025