Nov 14th 2025

How Close Can You Get To A Stranger

@ Tala

1644 W Chicago Ave, #1, Chicago, IL 60622

Opening Friday, November 14th, from 6PM - 9PM

On view through Sunday, November 23rd

Tala is excited to host How Close Can You Get to a Stranger, a book launch and exhibition by Steven Piper opening on Friday November 14, 6-9PM.

How Close Can You Get to a Stranger is an ongoing, evolving photographic series featuring a selection of images from a larger body of more than 2,000 photographs taken by Piper between 2018 and 2024 across Paris, Étretat, Bordeaux, Arcachon, and Biarritz. For this iteration, How Close Can You Get to a Stranger will manifest as an exhibition of Piper’s most recent pallatinum palladium prints alongside taking publication form for the first time. Printed by Nocault, a limited edition photography book of 500 will accompany the show. Available for purchase opening night.

How Close Can You Get to a Stranger is a continuous exploration of Piper’s recurring subject of choice — the stranger. To him, this proximity to the subject is an extension of his fascination with scales of intimacy. Arranged along a progressing gradient of proximity, far away landscapes sequentially become detailed portraits. Piper invites the viewer to perceive themselves through the eyes of a stranger, as if meeting for the first time — suspending the moment of first recognition as a practice of releasing judgements and an affirmation of an eternal gaze.

“To my subjects, you were once a passerby in my life, yet now I look at you, so intently.”

Wine sponsored by All Together Now
Music by DJ’s Buen Viaje

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