Meredith

I met Mer in Essouira and she came to visit me in Lisbon on the day before I left for back home. We got on like a house on fire (she taught me this saying and I’ve been trying to use it as much as possible). She made me laugh nearly constantly, I love the way she talks loud and confidently and says anything that comes into her head. She is herself so fully and openly that she inspires the same ease of being in others. Loving her is easy it came as natural as the sunset. We ate delicious tagines, she always made sure we were eating something delicious, and wandered the streets in Esso singing and talking about our lives. I found I could tell her anything and everything. We had a sleepover and ate chocolate in bed and I felt like I’d already known her for years. While walking through the sunset into the new night, followed by a gang of street dogs, we had the same realization at the same time - we’re street dogs too. Homeless, free, and looking for food and connection.

David

Salome and I met David in the first night we arrived in Valencia. We were couchsurfing with a man I call Pavlov but that wasn’t his name. David was couchsurfing with him as well; he had just left Germany and was starting on a grand adventure of his own. The meeting felt like fate or serendipity ( I mean, what are the odds?). We got along like a little family and it was natural to take him with us. For the next two weeks the three of us travelled south though Spain and into Morocco together.

David made me laugh nearly constantly. He was very silly and made grand gestures with his hands and his face when he spoke. He was vulnerable and open about his thoughts, feelings, and ideas. He had a certain clear sightedness that helped me greatly. His honesty and vulnerability inspired me. There was a night in Tangier when we were winding our way through the Medina, David was weeping but still he found his way perfectly even without a map and trough his tears. I was moved, and honoured to share this moment with him ( it’s not so good to cry alone).

Around David I couldn’t help but dream bigger. He was on his way to hitchhike a ship from the Canary islands to South America. There are so many options in this life, so many paths so many possibilities, and I could feel my self-created wall of perceived limitations breaking into pieces around him. He reminds me that if I can dream it I can do it, the test is to really dream up something great.

Jana and Karin

I met Jana and her mom Karin at the base of Monte Resegone in Lecco. When I left that morning I was a little nervous about hiking alone, but we got talking and ended up hiking the whole trail together. It was a beautiful day made so much more meaningful because of their company. I had an idea to start a photo project called Perfect Strangers just a couple days before. The aim is to document the moments of connection that happen on the road between strangers. They are perfect strangers, but also the Perfect strangers for the moment that is shared together. The way that time and space have to work perfectly together in order for the meeting to take place; it feels fated and nearly impossible, but yet, here we are. These moments are some of my very favourite parts of being alive, so I will do my best to record and share them through this project. .


Donovan

.I met Dono in Granada, we were travelling the same route but he was much faster - he travels like he’s running out of time. We crossed paths again in Essouira and then again in Lisbon. We’re both goblin children crazy for adventure and the road. We share similar philosophies and have noticed the same uncanny phenomenon, how the road always gives you what you need when you need it. He describes himself as extremely lucky, thinks about death and time nearly constantly, and is an incurable romantic; I found a kindred spirit. And there we were by the side of the highway holding a sign we’d made in a cafe nearby “Sul/Lagos Obrigado”, playing Lauren and Dono radio where we dance and sing loudly as the cars go by. The road opens up its great big arms and holds us. The world is smiling at us, the birds dance themselves into graceful circles and the green is greener; I feel like I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be. We found another world inside the world, a perfect one, Dono says God’s become lazy as the world silvers around us.

Salome

.I met Salome in Tenerife, and she agreed to join me on a hitchhiking adventure south along the coast of Spain and into Morocco. We spent the next three weeks (months? years? It was impossible for me to tell how time passed when I was with her) on the kind of adventure you read about in stories.

Salome had me crying with the grace she kept when listening; it’s so easy to feel around her, to speak to her. Watching her navigate the world reinvigorated my sense of independence and personal agency. (because oh my god is there nothing Salome is not prepared for? Any challenge she wont face? Does she have a sewing machine in her backpack?). She is both tender and resolute, able to change her path as her circumstances change but remain moving forward in the direction of her larger goals. We tried busing together for the first time. She is so kind, silly, and caring that even when things didn’t go our way (and mostly they didn’t, we only hitched one car!) it didn’t matter because we were having so much fun.

Nastya

I met Nastya in Diwan hostel in Tbilisi, we started volunteering there on the same day. We spoke about our past experiences volunteering and found we’d been to the same place before as well, the middle of nowhere in Serbia, but a year apart. Now here we are in Tbilisi sharing the same space and time -it seemed as though we were bound to cross paths eventually. 

There’s a jacuzzi tub in the hostel, it feels luxurious. In the first night we spent hours lying in the tub, drinking Saperavi wine and smoking cigarettes she rolled for us. It was a perfect night, time stood still or stretched on forever. We took turns spraying each others bodies with the water, especially the feet. I walked out naked under to the balcony beneath the moon. When I came back I spoke to her about the intimacy that is available between women. It’s special that in the first day of us knowing each other we could lie naked in the bath together, sometimes talking but mostly not. With Nastya it feels like being naked with the moon.