Sydney

100 Strangers Project - 76/100 /  by Michael Pung

Martina is a designer who I met at the Made festival at Carriageworks. It was an event where there were fashion pop-ups, a skateboard installation and a fashion show. She was hanging out with her friends when I approached her and was quite happy to have her photo taken for the project.

"What's something that you haven't done but would like to try?" I asked her.

"I would love to travel overseas on my own."

She has already done a bit of travel already with family and friends and on where she would travel to next, she said that she would love to visit South America one day. Martina is also a designer and showed me her Instagram on the type of designs she does. She enjoys what she does for a living. 

Thank you Martina for taking part in the project!

100 Strangers Project - 75/100 /  by Michael Pung

Aby had just left his house when I approached him. I asked him about taking part in the project and he said yes! He then told me that he also has a photography project as well and that he wanted me to take part in. He ran back to his house and came back with a card.

His project was for his girlfriend who is living in the Philipines and he wanted to show a bit of Australia to her by approaching strangers and photographing them holding a "Happy Birthday" card for her. Which I did.

"She tells me everything is the same for her birthday every year. So I wanted to do something special."

Aby is a chef and is in a long distance relationship with his girlfriend and wants to bring her over to Australia soon.

Thank you Aby for taking part in the project!

100 Strangers Project - 74/100 /  by Michael Pung

So I was walking around Surry Hills both to check out some clothing shops and also to find a stranger for a photo. I was walking up from Central Station and at this point had already missed some opportunities. Out of the corner of my eye I spotted a stylish young lady with extravagantly curly hair. I had to approach.

Her name was Giselle and she comes from Iran. She was on her way to catch a bus and only had time for a few quick shots. But of course she was delightful in front of the camera.

Thank you Giselle and hope you caught your bus!

100 Strangers Project - 73/100 /  by Michael Pung

Max was practicing some yoga poses out near the shoreline at the Botanical Gardens. He has been travelling for 5 months. Initially he traveled with a girl he was with for 4 years, but somewhere along the way she broke his heart. "I came from a dark world... (but after travelling) I opened my eyes up to world. I used to go to the tattoo parlour when life was bad," he said as he showed me a tattoo that was imprinted on the other side of his bottom lip.

He said that he was trying to move on and is well on his journey with his solo travels and his experiences meeting inspiring people. He was happy to have his photo taken and performed some yoga poses for me to photograph. He appeared to be in quite a bit of pain whilst doing so - he was purposely stretching to improve his flexibility.

Looking forward, Max is on his way to Surfers Paradise and hopes to settle there a while.

"Happiness isn't what you look for, it comes from inside. Something you create for yourself."

Thank you Max for taking part in the project!

100 Strangers Project - 72/100 /  by Michael Pung

I met Delphine sitting on a bench at Circular Quay. She was happy to have her photo taken but was a little short on time because she was about to meet a friend.

She moved here with her Australian partner who she met when they were both travelling in Brazil. She comes from France and was living there up until a year ago when she was weighing up the options of either staying there or starting a new life here in Sydney. 

She enjoys life here however said that she finds looking for work here can be a little difficult but her friend (who is also from France and has been successful) was going to give her advice on how to go about finding work here.

Thank you Delphine and good luck on your job search!

100 Strangers Project - 70 and 71/100 /  by Michael Pung

I was doing a photoshoot with a friend on the streets of Chippendale when we came across Anna and Ben! Anna asked me about my camera and I asked if I could take their photo and they affirmed.

I asked them: "If you could change the voice of Siri who would it be?"

Anna replied, "I think it would be cool if it was scottish."

"I'm happy with the way she is," said Ben.

"Have you heard Bruno Mar's new song 24k Magic? It's pretty cool, I've got it as my message tone." said Anna excitedly.

"She's got a habit of putting really long songs for her messages," informed Ben.

Anna traveled to London a little while back to put on an art show and of course loves her Fresh Prince of Belair.

Thank you Ben and Anna for taking part in the project!

100 Strangers Project - 69/100 /  by Michael Pung

The other day, I decided to make my way to a new cafe to do some work and made my way to Redfern. I was walking down the road and came across a man walking his little terrier. His name was Tommy and her name was Mini. 

Tommy has a habit of naming his pets after brands of cars. He used to have a cat named Porsche and now has another named Alfie (after Alfa Romeo). When he was younger, he used to have a collection of well over 300 of Matchbox and Hotwheel cars. He really loved his old car, a Gran Turismo Hawk 62.

He then showed me some of the photos that he took of himself and his pets on his phone:

"I take heaps of them. That was me yesterday. I cut my hair last Tuesday. This hair colour I bought it around a month ago but I just put it on now. It says dark brown but it looks blue to me."

He told me about his family, about watching his nieces and nephews grow up on Facebook, about how his older brother passed away from a liver condition and also about a car he acquired when he was younger:

"I used to have a Hillman Gazelle. I got that probably 88.. 89? It was probably a 68 model or something. Beautiful, big chrome square grille. It looked a lot older for the era. It looked old when it was brand new. This one had the fins and bubbly guards and everything and it looked totally out of date. The girl I got it off it started having engine problems so she got a new car and gave it to me for nothing! Got it from Newcastle. She used to live over at Newcastle and I lived at Raymond Terrace, so I drove it back to Raymond Terrace, there was smoke going out of it. The crank in the engine was broken. I never got around to fixing it so I stored it in my Dad's yard and when they were selling the house so he sold it to someone in the Helmet club so that was pretty neat."

Thank you Tommy for taking part in the project!