Into the minds of strangers

For Simon Hoegsberg, it wasn't enough to wonder what courses through the minds of strangers. He marched right up to them and asked.

Over a period of three months, the 28-year-old Danish photographer stopped random passersby on the streets of Copenhagen and New York City and asked them what they were thinking just before he intercepted them. Then he snapped their photos and transcribed their thoughts word-for-word.

He labeled his endeavor "The Thought Project: Life-Snaps by Simon Hoegsberg," and posted 55 of the 150 portraits and thoughts he collected on his Web site. He labels his subjects by number only--no name, age or location, just random musings ranging from the mundane to the poetic and philosophical.

A woman is annoyed with her boyfriend. A man is pondering his home renovation. A songwriter is in the midst of composing a song about his own shadow. In an e-mail exchange, Hoegsberg said he was surprised by how open and willing strangers were to reveal their inner goings-on.

The man in photo No. 20 identifies himself as a hotel receptionist on his way to work.

"I was thinking that I'm going to work and that I didn't feel like it and I was looking forward to the weekend," he says. "So I was daydreaming a little, thinking that perhaps I should get a cup of coffee someplace before I was going to work, just to relax."

Others, like the man in photo No. 40, have headier thoughts.

"I was thinking about Spencer Roane who was a chief judge at the Virginia Court of Appeals in the late 18th and early 19th century and wondering whether or not he was a political ally of Daniel L. Hilton, a Virginia planner who was a party in two Supreme Court cases in February 1796."

Wow, ask to go into someone's head and ye shall receive.