Caleb Cole describes himself on his website as "a former altar server, scout, and 4-H Grand Champion in Gift Wrapping." He is also a photographer who has attempted to inhabit the lives of other people through his work. Although he frequently studies people and their habits while in public, he says on his site that he is not attempting to show portraits of people he knows, but people he empathizes with in some way. This method was perfected by Cindy Sherman, but Cole's approach is a bit less glamorous.
In an e-mail to The Huffington Post, Cole writes, "It's less that there's a type of person I feel like I'm missing and more that I still have a huge collection of found clothes, have already created characters to fill those clothes, and feel an obligation to those people who now seem very real to me to find them a place to live out a moment in their lives before I can let them go."
Click through the slideshow below to see examples of Cole's work below. Some of his photos are funny, some are risque, and others are a little bit sad. It's the range of human experiences that the photographer captures that imbue these images with a certain kind of nostalgia, since we all feel like we're peeking into the secret lives of people we've seen, or maybe even met, but don't yet know.
All photos courtesy of Caleb Cole.
