So I had gone to the mall with the idea of just looking at pants and taking some random pictures. But I wanted more than that. I was using my husband's camera and he and I were discussing the difference between his method of taking pictures and my own. He tries to surreptitiously take pictures, trying to get people when they are unaware of having their picture taken and therefore more likely to be genuine. I, however, being a more "in your face" kind of gal, choose to openly take pictures. If someone doesn't like it, they can ask me to not do it.

With that in mind, I began to wonder about how people would react to me asking them if I could take a picture of their pants. So that's what I did. We went to between 20 and 25 clothing stores in the Glendale Galleria. I told sales clerks in each store that I was working on a project focused on pants; and that I had decided to focus on clothing salespeople's pants in particular. I asked them if I could take a picture of their pants. Of those stores, 16 stores allowed me to photograph one of their salespeople. And in one store, both of the salespeople wished to be involved.

The "no"'s that I got ranged from "I don't feel comfortable with that," to "I'm sorry, we can't have any photographic activity in the store," to "No." At Ann Taylor, the first woman I asked said that she would prefer not to. When the other salesperson asked me about the project (she had overheard my spiel to the first woman) the first salesperson said quite firmly, "You have customers to attend to, Amanda." There were very few places that were outright rude to me. Most of the people who said no (and quite a few of the people who said yes) looked at me like I was a bit off, but basically harmless.

So following are my 17 photographs of the pants of people who sell pants in the Glendale Galleria.