LA-based portrait photographer Lauren Randolph recently toured Peru on an 11-day-journey with one goal in mind – to make people smile. Randolph partnered with Contiki — a tour company for millennials — to create content for The Travel Project. The initiative “seeks to show how travel has the ability to create better humans”, which is just the sort of thing we can get behind.
Armed with her camera, Randolph traveled throughout Peru giving out compliments to strangers and capturing their responses. Naturally, she evoked some of the most genuine smiles, and sometimes blushes, from the locals, and was able to spread kindness and create connections on her trip instead of simply touring. Her trip and the portraits she took along the way set a shining backdrop for World Kindness Day (November 13), proving that a little kindness goes a long way.
The first thing I noticed was that everyone is smiling super hard in your photos! Did some of these smiles take work?
I just said, “You are beautiful’ or to men, “You are handsome,” and I think those are ones that obviously among many cultures those are things people like to hear, but I don’t think people hear them from strangers that often, or even from friends or loved ones that much. People should but I don’t think people just get random compliments out of nowhere that often, so I think that’s what brought these smiles out – I think it was kind of unexpected.
Yeah, it is pretty rare. Do you think just being free with compliments is rare, or do people make up for not giving compliments in other ways?
I think people are kind… but we live in such a world now where we’re so connected on the internet and on our phones but I think people are starting to miss human interaction, and especially from strangers. You talk to people you know, but people aren’t walking down the street and having conversations anymore. People aren’t stopping people on the street to say, “Hey! You’re beautiful,” or “Hey, I really like your music!” That kind of human engagement comes as a surprise and therefore, people are naturally feeling kind of bashful and that’s what I found: When I would give a compliment, people would kind of shy away from it, like, “Oh, no…thank you…” and that’s why I would ask to take their picture and I think that kind of human interaction is kind of a rare thing for people to experience.
So, you’re in this foreign place where you don’t know anyone at all. What was it that attracted it you to the people you showed kindness to?
While I was there, I would have my camera on me just in case I saw someone or someone doing something and I would just wander. I’m kind of a people-watcher, anyway, so while I was going around I would keep an eye out of people doing something with their hands or doing something musically or something on their own. I never really approached a group of people – it was people kind of sitting on their lonesome and it was easier to approach them that that. Oftentimes, I would go up – like there was this girl playing guitar, and I sat and watched her for a second and then kind of be like, “Oh, can I get your portrait.”
Asking people for their pictures alone is kind of a surprise. Peru is a tourist place so I think local Peruvian people are used to people being around, but the locals don’t necessarily engage with them, so half the time, just asking someone for their picture alone was a compliment. Then, once I gave them a compliment they were even more thrilled and that’s where the smiles came.
So this wasn’t necessarily you choosing someone who you felt needed to smile. It was just whoever you decided to approach?
Yeah, it wasn’t people who I thought looked sad or needed a smile. It was people who seemed open. There was one woman who was quite old – I wouldn’t say she was frowning or anything, but definitely in her own little world and as I approached this little girl ran by us and I noticed were both smiling at this little girl and I thought, “We’re kind of sharing this moment already, enjoying this little girl playing around.” I wouldn’t have necessarily gone up to her because she was selling some things but because we had already shared a smile watching this little girl play we had this connection and I felt it was easy to ask for a picture.
Tell me about the culture in Peru and its differences to American culture because when I heard about what you did, I wondered if it would have worked in America to just go up and ask people, “Can I take your picture?”
I heard the Peruvians were very kind and an open culture, but I also heard they were kind of shy, and being an American you kind of pick up on that, that people were kind of keeping to themselves. But even so, there wasn’t anyone whose photo I asked to take who said no or who turned me away. They were kind of bashful and I found I would get that reaction when I would tell them their compliment or that they were beautiful. They would kind of turn their cheeks and smile a little bit. But because it is very heavy on tourism, what I didn’t expect was a lot of people are set up along the road asking for money for portraits, and I didn’t want to approach people like that because I wanted it to feel more natural and more genuine.
There are people there dressed in the old school Incan dress and they are there to get people to ask to take pictures and I didn’t want to ever do that. I looked for people that were either working or doing something on which I could compliment them. I didn’t want to pay for pictures when I was there to engage with locals, to begin with. But I think because it’s such a foreign place and it’s so rich in history. Because they’re very proud of their culture and its very strong and very rich (which I found fascinating to document and shoot) it shows when you ask for pictures or just talk to them in general. They want to tell you and help you learn about their history and culture.
Do you think about these people often? Does it give you a deeper interest into their lives and their stories?
I definitely feel that I know people and the culture more than I would have if I was just an observer on the trip. You go to such interesting places, but even though you’re immersed into the trip, you can still be an observer and witness it from afar. I feel like I learned more because I was engaging with these people. You learn about Incan history in school, but when you’re there and learning about it and seeing it and hearing it from these people that are so proud of their history, it really sticks with you. I know more now that I would have had I not made myself step out and chat with these people a little bit.
You embodied the goal of the Travel Project. What attracted you to that?
I travel a lot and I work a lot when I travel. Usually I shoot for tourism and things like that, but I love portraits and I’m always drawn to people and this was a good opportunity to go somewhere new but also step outside of my comfort zone. When I love shooting portraits I only shoot portraits of people I’m with. I very rarely just go up to strangers and ask for pictures – I’m kind of shy, myself. This was a great opportunity to carry my camera around with purpose and look for people I could approach, who I felt were open, and it opened me up myself. I hope to continue to do this – talking to locals and talking to strangers – because the conversations you have and the portraits you take make your trip so much more memorable. Just looking through my pictures I have, I remember the smiles we shared and the little conversations we had with each other, and it makes the trip feel much richer than just getting a bunch of tourist photos of pretty landscapes or pretty sites and things like that. It makes the trip feel more whole.
What do you hope others can take away from your experience?
Even after I shared the blog and everything, the response I got even on my personal Facebook was overwhelming! I post travel photos and people know I go places, but people were so excited about spreading kindness and making people smile, and how many smiles there were in these photographs. Even my own friends shared the blog to their pages and said things like, “If you need some smiles today or some way to brighten up your day…” or “Great project from my friend! Made me want to travel to Peru and see these people!” and stuff like that. And I think that’s a little bit different than what I normally hear, like “Your trip looked great. Love the photos.”
I think people connect with these more because there’s eye contact, there are smiles, there are stories behind the pictures. It’s not an outsider’s perspective. You get a sense of kind, warm people.
Well, yeah, you make me want to try this, too!
Absolutely, and I think while these people were open in Peru, it could translate outside of that country and even in the united states. People want to open up and people would like to have that connection. I think the majority of people are kind, and turning the camera on them makes them feel like a star or an important person or something special and I think… a form of spreading kindness could even just be shooting portraits of people like that. It was a dream situation to be down there, especially right now. It felt very important to engage with other cultures and other people and make the world feel smaller and closer together.
