Midland, Ontario, Canada July 8 2007

My husband and I were going through some small-ish towns while he was on a business trip. While he would stop-in for meetings, I would walk about and check things out and take a few photos. Somehow, this was the only one I got with other people in it.

Apparently, Midland is a town with too many murals to know what to do with. I did see many but only took a photo of this one as it was the largest one I saw.

Rib Fest, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, June 24 2007

In this photo I am posing as a Rib Monster. Shortly after this (about 6 hours) I gave up meat altogether. This was my first half-rack of the day, more were to follow and disastrous consequences ensued. Now most of Rib Fest (officially titled the International Chicken & Rib Cook-Off) takes place on Sparks Street but there was no seating so we headed over to a little pavilion on the corner of Wellington and Metcalfe right in front of Parliament Hill. It was quite windy.

Photo by Matt Lewis (represented by the shadow on the bottom left)

Lynx Game, Ottawa, Ontario Canada , July 22 2007

On of the last Lynx games before the team moves to the USA. It was busier than it looks here because we were sitting right behind first base and most people were behin3 home plate and 3rd base. As with the theme of this site, I only know the people in the foreground. Who are the others?

Photo taken by Matt Lewis

Sea World, Orlando, Florida, USA, March 1990

Here I was feeding a dolphin and then I pet it. It felt like a wet beach ball.

Disney World, Orlando, Florida, USA, March 1990

So I've got a few photos for this one. My dad and I drove from Toronto to Florida for march break when I was in grade three. I think I wore the same outfit every day. I was very stylish. I was also obsessed with hugging all the people in costumes and waited in line forever to see Mickey.


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Pugnic, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 28th 2006

I was at the semi-annual Pugnic taking photos of my dog (the one with the black harness) when all these other pugs got into the shot. Who are THEY? Actually...who is that woman poking my dog in the eye?

Manhatten, New York, USA, March 19 2004

This was some sort of Peach March or Anti-War March that wound it's way through mid-madhatten on a crisp day. I didn't see it start and I didn't see it end but it was huge and there was lot's of honking. I don't know anybody in this photo.

Great Glebe Garage Sale, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, May 27 2006

As far as I’m concerned, these are all strangers in the background as I was just taking a photo of the spectacle of having someone play the piano on a busy street corner.

Mont Tremblant, Quebec, Canada, December 16th 2006

So I’m kicking this off with a couple of my own photos. This one is at the bottom of the hill in the Ski village at Mont Tremblant. As you can see, I am enjoying some maple toffee on a stick.

The only person in the background that can really be made out is the guy in the black toque.

Welcome to Strangers in the Background!

I’m currently working on getting everything up and running but let me start you off with the general idea.

We all have photos with strangers in the background. Some are on vacation, some at local events, even family gatherings. We could be looking at these same strangers for years and know nothing about them except they way they looked at a particular moment in time.

This site is a collection of such photos organized by location and date where people can submit photos and also look for themselves and people they know in the backgrounds.

If you would like to submit a photo (or multiple photos) please send an email to [strangersinthebackground at gmail dot com] with the following information:

• attached photo(s)
• location (city, province/state, country, event/specific locale)
• date (year month and day - estimations must be noted)
• a couple sentences describing what’s going on in the photo

I reserve the right to edit the photo for size and possibly decency as well as to edit the description for grammar and flow if necessary.