I never recognize anyone when I’m out shooting.

I shoot street photography almost every day, usually walking the same streets in Santa Monica. I’m paying attention because I’m looking for photographs, but I almost never see anyone I know. I rarely even recognize the same people.

It’s strange because Santa Monica isn’t that big.

Sometimes it feels like I’m walking around inside a video game. People just spawn into the world like NPCs, I photograph them, and then they disappear. I may never see them again.

Maybe that’s part of what makes street photography in a city so interesting. You’re surrounded by people, but most of them are complete strangers. Everyone is moving through the same space, living completely separate lives.

Cincinnati always felt different to me. When I was there recently, random strangers would come up and start talking to me. One guy told me this whole story about getting drunk at a Milwaukee Brewers game 20 years ago, sliding down the stadium slide, and getting arrested when he reached the bottom. He was still proud of it 20 years later.

That kind of interaction rarely happens to me here.

In Santa Monica, people appear, I take a photograph, and they’re gone.

Sometimes street photography really does feel like a simulation.