The last thing most mall shoppers want is to interact with other shoppers. Misha Maynerick, a Bahá'í artist living in Portland, Ore., wanted to see if she could get some of these people to literally reach out and touch someone -- to connect, albeit briefly, with another “stranger.”

Ms. Maynerick wanted, in a creative way, to further the fundamental oneness of humanity, a core belief of the Bahá'í Faith. So she created an “intervention” at the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, Calif.


Misha Maynerick She and Razi Wilson, a Bahá'í in nearby Van Nuys, walked up to shoppers, introduced themselves, and asked the shoppers if they would be willing to shake hands with another stranger, and be photographed as they did so.

“Most people were startled at first; they were on edge,” admits Ms. Maynerick, who assembled the resulting photos in a “Strangers Shaking Hands” portfolio.

The project, she says, is an “experiment into how people will react when given the chance to relate in a way in which they are not accustomed in certain situations.”

For example, "The shopping mall is a space where thousands of people walk in close proximity," Ms. Maynerick says, "but never need to interact with one another. It is a symbolic site of very powerful underlying assumptions in our society, such as the belief that we can exist in isolation from each other, or that material items are more important than positive community relationships."

The two women approached several hundred people in all. While many people refused to participate, those who did were “completely uplifted and excited by the activity,” Ms. Maynerick says. “They would often continue chatting and discover things they had in common.

Many shoppers asked the two women why they were doing this project, Ms. Maynerick says, and were “extremely responsive when we told them about the Bahá'í teaching on the unity of humanity and the need for all people to make efforts to promote unity.”

Although “Strangers Shaking Hands” is a “small action,” Ms. Maynerick says, “we hope people will be inspired by what it symbolizes: the possibility of every member of humanity reaching out to another in an open and positive way, for no other reason than the fact that we share this planet together.”