Perhaps I'm reading too much into these photos, but it seems that Raul Gutierrez wants the viewer to capture a sense of his subject's stories. The people in his images are surrounded by objects, scenery, atmosphere, and other people that hint at the context of their lives. These are not subjects to be studied or captured on film but stories to be told and admired.

In addition to his photography Gutierrez keeps a simple blog where he points out photography, literature, and other tidbits of life and culture he finds interesting. About a month ago he recounted a story of his adventure with a group of strangers while waiting for the subway. In addition to being one of the most wonderful little stories I've read in a while, it also give us an idea of why the people in his photography are so imperfectly and wonderfully human.

Very late last night I found myself in the City Hall subway stop with 8 other stragglers waiting for a non-existent R train. We were all spread out across the platform, all standing, but after half an hour everyone had migrated to the benches and we were all sitting in a row. Nobody had anything to read, cellphone service wasn't working, and most unusually, no one was attached to an ipod.

After a few minutes a very tall girl with long brown hair who I would later learn was a Parsons design student, broke social convention, turned to her fellow benchmates, and said, "My God, wasn't today beautiful." At first she just got a few quiet affirmations,"yeah, gorgeous", "best day yet" etc, but then a young woman in a business suit again broke social convention and revealed personal information: "It was so nice, when I woke up I decided I didn't want to feel miserable about anything, and broke up with my boyfriend. I ditched him at 7:30 in the morning. He didn't know what hit him." This revelation shattered the dam of silence and soon the entire group: a couple from Denmark, the Parsons student, the businesswoman, a somewhat scruffy writer named Mike, a lady carrying a violin, and a young tough-looking couple from Coney Island were all chatting. In short order we covered breakups, design books, Facebook, muggings (The Danish couple were surprised to learn none of us had been violently mugged...), and Thai food in Brooklyn. Another half hour passed. Finally Mike, said, "screw the train, let's walk, my car is on the other side and I can take some of you home." We immediately lost the Coney Island couple ("That's foolish man. Foolish.") but everyone else was on board. The violin woman slipped out of her heels into white tennis shoes and we headed out into the night.

Take five minutes and read the rest at Gutierrez's blog.