Are Your Facebook Friends Really Your Friends?

Facebook didn't necessarily make Tanja Hollander lonely, per se, but it did make her curious. It was a little over two years ago when she looked at that number representing "friends," 626 in her case, and started to analyze it. "What I found were some people I hadn't met in 'real life'; a few people I was not speaking to in 'real life'; ex-lovers with new partners; ex-partners of friends; art dealers, curators and high school friends who I hadn't seen in over 20 years," she wrote. "I set out to find the answer, using the only tool I know — photography," she wrote. Since then, Hollander has been on a mission to photograph every person that was included in that number at that time. (Of course, the number has changed a bit since then; she has made new friends, especially over the course of this project. But she also affirms that she hasn't cheated, despite how awkward it can get.) She's already shot about a third and plans to keep chipping away until it's done.