In his photo series ‘The Makeout Project’, photographer Dedediah Johnson puts on red lipstick and proceeds to make out with his subjects. After kissing, he captures their honest reactions on film.
Leaving a trail of red lipstick on their face, Johnson invites viewers to “imagine the circumstances surrounding the kiss”.
He said, “The kisses vary in length and intimacy. My subjects are all aware of what I’m going to do ahead of time, but in the moment of the kiss anything can happen.”
Thus far, Johnson has kissed about 100 people—both male and female—and his greatest worry is “coming off as a creep, rather than an artist”, he said on DNAinfo.
“I haven’t had a lot of people tell me they think that, but I’m sure there are people who think that,” he added. “I’m trying to sort of divorce kissing from an intimate act. The idea that a kiss has to be romantic, I’m sort of trying to question that truth.”
Johnson is also currently looking for new subjects to kiss. “I would definitely make out with anybody here. I want to kiss older people and younger people, people from everywhere. I just need to figure out how to make that happen in an organic way.”
Are there any willing parties out there?
[via Beautiful Decay and DNAinfo]