Between 1963 and 1972, photographer Nobuyoshi Araki took the subway to work. Always with his cameras, even back then, he began to take pictures of those who sat opposite him.
"People plunk themselves down," he now remembers, "and act out their lives -- all different -- for you." He was interested in the idea of the random encounter, and "if you just keep on looking at a person, for a long time, there's always something." Sometimes he let the other person know he was photographing them, which resulted in what Roland Barthes has called "the instant pose." Mostly he did not. Camera in his lap he did not even use the view finder, resulting in lopped off bodies and strange but interesting compositions.
In this way he captured many people, including by accident his own mother (p. 110 of this edition). He began to think of the subway car as his studio, and then -- looking at the anonymous if interesting people -- as "a transport car for prisoners."