GIANT ARTISTS' SUMMER INTERN - SARAH WASKO
Today we invited Giant's fabulous summer intern, Sarah Wasko, a rising senior at Elon University, to take over the blog and write, well, whatever she wanted! Here, a rogue run-in with an ex sparks a connection to an inspiring street photographer. As an agency, we also find inspiration in fresh perspectives and happenstance. Thanks, Sarah, for the great read! I haven’t done much sightseeing since moving to L.A. for the summer, but this past weekend, my little 6’7” brother came to visit me, and we packed an unnatural number of things into the three and a half days that he was here. Though science would argue otherwise, I’m pretty sure I got a sunburn on the left half of my body from all the driving. The only person more violently laid back than me is my brother Joe, so we had a pretty great time or whatever. We spent a day in San Diego and, true to form, we stopped in Balboa Park and then headed to Seaport Village. To my knowledge, I only know one person in San Diego; a guy who I had a pseudo relationship with for about a month and a half. Short story shorter, it started weird and it ended weird. He moved to San Diego after graduation, and the chances of me seeing him were quite literally one in a million. Naturally, I saw him walking down the side of the road just feet from my car, and we made really uncomfortable, prolonged eye contact. This will probably remain the biggest coincidence of my life for years to come. Photography that captures coincidence or visual pun has always interested me. It is an ingenious way to approach the art. Though it would require a little backstory to understand the breadth of the moment, it would have been great to have my weird San Diego run-in captured in a photograph. Maciej Dakowicz is a Polish street photographer based in Mumbai who has captured a superhuman number of photographs of real life happenstance. What makes these photos great, in contrast to my awkward staring contest, is the understated nature of the moments. They are constantly occurring but often go unnoticed. These photos showcase Dakowicz’s eye for miraculous instances of visual coincidence in his home of India as well as Tunisia, Yemen, Bangladesh, Malawi, and an impressive host of other nations. Sarah