Intimate Strangers

In November 2002, I moved from Tel Aviv to London and settled in Soho, the centre of its gay life. Soho is full of posing, but also full of feelings and emotions - loneliness, excitement, fear, passion and self-discovery are all aspects of living in a big cosmopolitan city.

I was fascinated by the amount of “strangers” in a place where we were all “strangers”. Coming from Israel, I was a foreigner like so many others who came over from another country or another city. We are all foreigners among foreigners here - everyone you lay your eyes on is a mystery, an enigma.
I was immediately taken by Soho’s vibrancy, with its endless encounters in the streets - where so many eyes meet and then quickly move away. Sometimes these glances last a moment longer and turn into a smile. So many stories, languages, gestures, so many trapped feelings behind those faces...

Two strangers meet and reveal to each other the most precious secret they have - their intimacy - their naked bodies, their excited breathing, their vulnerability, their morning-after-look. They give to a complete stranger the greatest gift they can – their “naked truth” – while most of the time they work so hard to cover it up by means of fashion and codes of behaviour. You may call these encounters "casual sex" or a "one night stand ", but for me the experience of having someone who only a moment ago was a mere stranger in the street, now lying completely naked in your bed, closing his eyes next to you, giving you the gift of full trust in his most vulnerable state – is pure magic.

I selected my models very subjectively, often without having a plan beforehand. Some sessions were triggered by a smile on the street from a passer-by, a shy look in a bar, an erotic chat on the internet, or just by following the body language of someone across the street from my coffee table. Sometimes, a moment of intimacy unexpectedly revealed itself during a professional photo session for a model portfolio.

Those intimate moments only happened when my models ignored the presence of the camera and let themselves go with their feeling, fantasy, nature - during a playful moment, a relaxed nap, an unexpected look, an unintended expression or a sexual activity. They gave me their confidence and full trust. In those special moments I was permitted to take a look into their intimate inside, and to reveal my own intimacy.

All the people in these photos are very special strangers who allowed me to witness and capture a special moment of intimate truth. Thanks to that, they have gained a place in my heart. They are my intimate strangers.

Kobi Israel, London, 2005