By Emily Gold Boutilier
A student project aims to erase “the Amherst Awkward” by placing strangers (very) close together
[Student Life] You’re on your way to class. You see a familiar face—that guy from chemistry lab sophomore year. But do you know him well enough to say hi? You avert your eyes and keep walking.
This is what students call “the Amherst Awkward,” says Rachel Nghe ’16. “Because Amherst is such a small school, you’ll see people you recognize, but you would never smile, despite the fact you’ve seen them 10 times in the past week.”
Last semester Nghe tried to combat the phenomenon—by asking strangers to pretend to love each other.
Modeled on Touching Strangers, a much-publicized project by photographer Richard Renaldi, the student-led effort involved approaching people on campus, pairing them up and having them pose for portraits as if they were twins, or best friends, or newlyweds.
As the subjects talked about how to pose, they also shared their names. “Laughter broke the awkwardness,” Nghe says. “There were many ‘couples’ who said, ‘I’ve seen you around.’”
The idea came when Adrianna Turner ’14 saw a video about Renaldi. “He created a moment in which two people had to experience each other,” she says. “That’s what I wanted to come out of this project. It was about the experience of having to pose in this intimate position with someone you are not familiar with, of taking the time to experience being human and to share that experience with someone else.”
Amherst can be mentally and emotionally exhausting, Turner says. “I’d walk past someone and ignore their presence, not on purpose but because my mind was so full of other things. I wanted to give people the opportunity to slow down and experience something different.”
Nghe herself was the subject of a portrait. She pretended to be the relative of a returning veteran. “When I was hugging her I was trying to express relief and sadness at the same time,” she says, “but we couldn’t stop laughing at the silliness of hugging each other when we don’t really know each other.”
Nghe does not remember her partner’s name, but now, when they pass each other on the quad, their eyes meet. And they smile.
Photos by Stella Honey Youn ’15E