“Portraits of America” is a site run by Ivan Velinov where he photographs and shares the stories of strangers. The site began as “Portraits of Boston”, but has since expanded to cover the entire country. Velinov’s photographic portraits are often quite good, but it’s the accompanying stories that are really the draw for me. For example, this Rhode Island woman was photographed with her pet pig and shared this:

That’s probably why I got the pig. It’s a little bit of an empty nest syndrome. I need something to take care of. My younger son doesn’t like her. He hasn’t touched her, hasn’t petted her, and doesn’t want to be photographed with her. He hates her. It’s funny—I think he thinks I’m replacing him. He’s jealous of a pig.”

The stories aren’t usually this amusing, but they are almost always interesting.

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