Involving people in photo projects has tremendous benefits in terms improving the workflow, getting timely feedback, and developing skills, both technical (by learning from others) and social (by the very act of getting involved with people.) This process works best if the people, who are getting involved are friends of the photographer – they are keen to help, it is fun to spend time with friends, etc. Making friends, however, is fundamentally difficult, despite the proliferation (mostly, by social media) of the stigma of not having many friends. In fact, as the number of (superficial) social interactions for a given person increases, the quality (depth) of these interactions decreases. This is not surprising, as true friendships take time to develop, and time is a limited resource for anyone of us.
Gretchen Rubin, the author of “Better Than Before“, points out that a very effective way to make new friends is to befriend the friends of one’s existing friends. This notion, although intuitive, does not solve the problem of making friends initially (when you have none), but fortunately, most people have at least few friends in their lives. The key, then, is to spend more time with friends, explore mutual interests, ask them to involve their other friends… Photography might just be the perfect vehicle for it.
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