Joshua Langlais
Hello my Name is...
Joshua Langlais. Langlais is French. And Joshua is Biblical, but that is something for another time. I was born in.... the very small town of Dover-Foxcroft, in central Maine. You don't need to visit.
I currently live in....
Denver, Colorado, and am loving it!
It all started when....
"It all" started when I grew tired of working for a nonprofit in Boston for free and couldn't justify living on my credit card anymore. I had a lot of creative projects in mind and was aching to do something substantial with my portraits. I saw a series called "the thought project" by a Danish photographer named Simon Høgsberg and that may have been the spark that ignited the flame that is now I Heart Strangers. Since then
My work has become...
my way of life, my daily routine, and my obsession, for better or worse.
My ideal work environment...
is the streets. I complain about the rain, and don't love taking pictures when it is below freezing, but I "work" on the streets because that is where the people are. I keep my eyes out for good backgrounds and the position of the sun and just roam around until I find a stranger that finally gives me the benefit of the doubt and trusts me not to photoshop their face onto naked bodies. But I would really like to have an office where I could post process and do research and send emails because my studio apartment kitchen is a little crowded.
I spend my days/nights...
with people. I get all my inspiration from meeting people and developing relationships. I see community and conversation and loving people as the only things that matter.
I'm currently under the influence of...
soda water with bitters and lime. And Richard Avedon. And live music shows. And my own anxiety. And strangers... strangers make or break me every day. There is something wonderfully exciting about having no idea who I will meet when I step outside my apartment.
I waste a lot of...
I don't like the word "waste". I am not sure I waste anything. I probably take longer showers than I should. I spent more money than I can afford on going out with friends, eating food, drinking, seeing shows, and buying old Polaroid cameras, but I get so much from each experience that I can't justify labeling them as waste.
It sure would be nice to have a dumpster full of...
old bicycle frames. I would want to take them out of the dumpster right away and open my own custom bicycle shop.
My buried treasure will consist of....
bottles upon bottles of San Pellegrino and Ayn Rand books and sea salt & malt vinegar kettle-cooked chips.
and be guarded by....
a tall stone tower surrounded by a moat with a band of archers, costumed with feathers in their caps, standing at the top, keeping a lookout for anyone in search of the simple things in life. The archers will only be for show, though. I wouldn't expect them to shoot anyone. Well, I will leave them with a very short list of people they could shoot if they felt like it.
I wish more people saw the value in...
slowing down and enjoying the unexpected and asking questions every once in a while and learning something about someone else or finding out how their barista's morning has been.
My last word(s)...
I am not sure I am ready for interviews. But now that I am here, I'll say that for some reason or another I feel stronger about this "I Heart Strangers" project than I have about anything else I have ever done. I'd really like for it to catch on and be something that people all over the world get something from. I learn about myself through the daily processes and continue to grow and better relate to others and genuinely feel more compassion for what is happening to the world around me.
Learn more about Joshua Langlais and his project I Heart Strangers