100 Strangers Project – No. 4

His name is John and he is the 4th in my 100 Strangers Photography Project. He is a taxi driver from Singapore in his late fifties. He looked much younger though. I took his taxi home from the City Hall area last week and did not get a chance to talk to him until the last 3 minutes or so because I was on the phone with my friend who called just before I got into the cab.

I noticed him nodding few times when I mentioned to my friend on the phone that I was going to fly to Surabaya and drive to Malang to attend my cousin’s wedding. It seemed that he knew the place I was talking about. When I finished talking about 3 minutes before reaching home, he asked if I lived in Malang. I told him no as I would just be visiting to attend a wedding. That started our conversation. He told me that he has been to many places in Indonesia as he likes to travel and he has 17 more provinces in Indonesia to visit. Indonesia has 33 provinces now. He then started talking in fluent Indonesian including some slangs. We were about 50 meters from reaching my destination when I quickly told him about 100 Strangers Project and asked the question if he wanted to be my no. 4. He obviously said yes.

After he stopped his taxi, we continued talking for about 5 minutes, mostly in Indonesian. He told me that he could read people. So I challenged him. He asked two things about me first, so I told him my age and that I am the first child. He then went on to say few things about me including my character and they were spot on. Impressive. John also told me few things about some black magic practices he had known and gave me advice on what to do if I encounter one.

I took the shot of him inside the taxi. He was lit only by the dim overhead light. I didn’t ask him to take off his cap as I wanted to create that mystical feeling about him, so I wanted part of his face to be in shadow. This was shot with Panasonic GF1 with 20mm pancake lens, by the way.

So, there you go … no. 4.