This Video Totally Proves That Physical Proximity Can Create Real Empathy
Richard Renaldi is a matchmaker of sorts. It isn't love that he's trying to create, but that's often the outcome of his knack for pairing people together. Renaldi is a photographer who works on a photo series called Touching Strangers, which is exactly what it sounds like. In the video below, you'll see how Renaldi poses strangers he finds on the street together to create captivating photos and surprising reactions from his subjects.
Renaldi told A Photo Editor about his inspiration for the project, saying, "I was interested in the space between people, like in they city. You see a group of people, clustered together, and in that moment and space in time, they’re connected. Standing at a light, waiting to cross the street. Everyone looks like they’re together, because they’re in a group. But they’re not. They don’t know each other. I wanted to link them." By bringing two strangers together and making them touch, Renaldi was testing what he calls the physical vocabulary of two people being together.
The power of touch has proved to be much stronger than even Renaldi anticipated. As seen in the video, a bond is often formed between the subjects. Awkward body language becomes a familiar arm around the shoulder and a look of content. Researcher Dacher Keltner studies the science of touch at UC Berkeley. The psychology professor has written that "touch is truly fundamental to human communication, bonding, and health." His lab conducted a blind study in which two people had to communicate emotions by only touching their hands. Compassion, love, and gratitude were understood through touch more than 50% of the time.
Clearly, touch is crucial to empathy. Renaldi breaks down the barrier between strangers and puts them in vulnerable positions, only to have the strangers leave with a bond between them. Here are a few more photos from Renaldi's Touching Strangers series. Look at the hand placement, the distance between the subjects, and the looks on their faces. Do they really seem like strangers to you?
