Stranger #46 - Jamie

Recently I've been loitering around the Black Garter pub in Newcastle. Not because I fancy a pint at 10am in the morning, but because there are always interesting looking characters that hang around there.

 

They've recently put tables, chairs and brollies outside the pub so I thought I'd be brave and ask one of the drinkers to be my stranger. Jamie kindly and shyly agreed. He was having a pint with his sister having just finished a shift as a security guard at Newcastle College.

 

'Have you ever had to deck any of the students?' I asked.

'Nahh, they're quite canny,' he smiled, 'They sometimes just get a bit drunk.'

Jamie had an array of tattoos on his muscly arms - most of them made reference to people he cared about. 'James' - his dad, 'Jane' - someone who he described as a 'being like a surrogate mother to me' and 'mam' - one he'd done himself when he was 14.

 

Jamie was such a quiet, gentle, shy young bloke. I'd made assumptions about him in my mind with his 'tough' look, but after a brief chat, I soon realised I was completely wrong.

 

'Is he a canny brother?' I asked his sister.

'Oh aye,' she replied proudly, 'he's a smashin' lad. '

 

Jamie - thank you so much for taking the time to help me with the project. Hope you like the photos :)

 

Jamie is #46 in my 100 strangers project. Find out more about the project and see pictures taken by other photographers at the 100 Strangers Flickr Group page

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