We’ve all seen Missed Connections on Craiglist, and most of us have even wondered, ‘wow, that could be so romantic if it ever happened, because the chances of it happening are so rare, it would be destiny right? (sighhh…)’

This story will make you rethink that theory. It  may stop you from posting a Missed Connection, or even hoping that guy might be…The One…because he’s not.

So here goes:

My friend, a girl with a scrabble tattoo on her arm, decided after a long-term relationship ended that she would go the single-route for awhile, on purpose…spend time with friends, get to know herself better, etc.

She was enjoying it, and one summer day, she found herself at a friend’s rooftop birthday BBQ in Brooklyn. There were a few different social circles at this BBQ, like most. She and her friends sat together and talked and ate.

A few days later, her coworker sent her a Missed Connections link, saying, “I found one about you!!” My friend could not believe it. What are the chances, really? A .0001% chance you ever find a posting that you know for a fact is about you?

Here is the post:

scrabble tattoo on roof – m4w (greenpoint)

asked myself why the letter “n” all night long, then you were gone before I got a chance to ask. also, I saved you a piece of cake.

do you always sit in a circle of asian girls? and sit at the top of the stairs so everyone gets a crush on you when they get to the roof?

My friend passed it around to some of us who were with her at the BBQ, and we had a good laugh. But we were also in shock….because, really:

Why would a guy post a Missed Connection about you, when he is standing on the same rooftop for a few hours, amongst friends of friends? This rooftop was not moving. It was not rush hour. The doors were not closing. (cue Sliding Doors Gwyneth Paltrow scene.)

These questions boggled our minds for a while. We even spent time going through photos taken at the party, trying to figure out who this guy might have been by looking at people standing around in the background.

My friend was not in a rush to figure out who it was because, again, she was taking a break in her love life. But who knows? If this was Mr.Right, then who is going to say no to that? No one. She was curious.

Now, a few weeks go by…

A different friend of mine is reading a blog about a Brooklyn artist named Sophie Blackall, who selects random Missed Connections postings she likes and recreates the scene described in the post, in her own vision.

Now, this friend (a dude) never knew about the original Craigslist posting. But he did know my friend, the girl with the scrabble tattoo.

He emailed me:

“Doesn’t she have a scrabble tattoo, here, look at this link, is this illustration about her?”

It was. Here it is:

NOW, the chances of finding this artwork, based on the posting, is at .00001%.

I told him rest of the story and both of us found it all to be crazy. Since I’m a photographer, he recommended that I shoot the illustration as a photograph… with the actual girls. So meta right? Great idea. So we did it.

The photograph:

Eventually, through friends of friends of friends, we solved the mystery. Here’s what happened:

A guy on a Brooklyn rooftop, who has a girlfriend, has a crush on a girl across the roof…he goes home that night and posts a Missed Connection, in the rare hope that this girl would find it and he could leave his GF, and be with her.

He just never thought we’d find out who he was, that he had a GF, hence why he posted a Missed Connection. Nor did he think his words would be turned into an illustration, written about, posted online, and then even further be turned into a lasting photograph, with the object of his desire, depicted as the beauty he described.

It must sting.

Check out more photography by ahorsewithnoname here: www.ahorsewithnonamephotography.com

Apr 26, 2012

11 F-YEAH! F-YEAH!

wtf do you think?