During the summer of 2002, I lived and worked in Manhattan. Though my childhood home was only an hour train ride from Pennsylvania Station, New York City was and remains foreign to me.

Over the course of fourteen weeks I traveled to different neighborhoods around the five boroughs, introduced myself to strangers and asked them if I could take their portraits. This series is as notable for the people who allowed me to photograph them as it is for those who did not. Very few middle-aged women acquiesced. I spent five hours in Chinatown, where only three people allowed me to photograph them.

Facing the lens, some people let me in while the expression of others pushed me away. The relationship between my subjects and myself was reciprocal: everyone was a stranger; everyone was self-conscious.

At the same time, photographing on the streets of New York City, I watched the expression of my subjects change as I stepped closer and asked them to look back at me. Just by making eye contact with a stranger and asking to take their portrait, I stepped each time into their personal space and made a cordial connection.