Bus Stops is a photographic study of human sociability.
The series consists of group portraits of people waiting at bus stops. In the photos, strangers look directly at the lens, thus creating the illusion of a consensual and organized shot, but in truth none of them knew they were being photographed.
I have always enjoyed watching people in public places - on the bus, at the clinic, in a queue at a store, or in any other place where a person is forced to be amongst strangers. In such circumstances, many of us choose to close in on ourselves and avoid socializing. Such behavior raises the question - why do we, as the most social creatures on the planet, choose to distance rather than connect?
The bus stop is one of those places where strangers gather. Observing the stops, I noticed how greatly such circumstances amplify an individual's propensity to withdraw: people stare in the direction of the arriving bus not as much as in wait of the vehicle, but as the sole chance to escape from a socially uncomfortable environment, where connection feels unacceptable. Such behavior confronts the claim of an innate and fundamental human need for man. This paradox led me to use fiction as a means of creating an imagined reality.
At each stop, individuals' furtive glances towards the lens were captured, and later, during post-production, singular photos were superimposed into group portraits. This new surrealism hyperbolizes the innateness of human sociability that here, exists only in photography.
2015 - 2020. Project was partially financed by Lithuanian Council for Culture.
