WHEN photographer Haley Morris-Cafiero developed a self-portrait she had taken in Times Square, something stood out.

There in the background, surrounded by a riot of colourful advertising and soaring tower blocks, was a man smirking at her back. Instead of being hurt, Haley was intrigued, turning it into the first piece in her extraordinary series Wait Watchers, which looks at the meaning of other people’s stares. “He was being photographed by this woman, so to have him focused on me was really interesting,” Haley, an associate professor at Memphis College of Art, told news.com.au. “Then five minutes later, it happened again.” The 39-year-old began setting up her camera in crowded streets, beaches and shopping districts all over the world, using a remote to capture how other people reacted to her. The result is a revealing and uncomfortable collection of suppressed smiles, sneers, puzzlement and wide-eyed fascination. “I don’t care what anybody thinks,” she said. “I pick images if something looks critical on a stranger’s face. “The way we look at each other has become a form of communication. On social media we like, vote and share, we’re asked to judge constantly. “We determine our self-worth based on how people look at us. We make people popular for being critical and cruel.” Haley started posting photos from the series on social media in February 2013, and was amazed at the force of the reaction. She was inundated with emails and comments, both positive and negative. Many attacked her as ugly and fat, telling her they wanted to hit her and saying they hated seeing “vile” overweight people. “Would you walk up to someone and say, ‘You look like a pillowcase full of door knobs’?” she asked. “‘Are you so affected? Does it ruin your day?’ “It’s sad but it’s also interesting. I think it’s funny that someone would take the time to look at me and send a comment.” Haley has now made the photos into a book called The Watchers, out in September, which juxtaposes her images with comments left on her social media accounts, emails and blog posts and articles about her work. She has already been contacted by people thanking her for making them feel better about their own experiences, and by people saying they used to make fun of overweight people, and her work had made them think twice. But Haley is realistic about our society. “For every person that takes something positive away, it makes someone mad,” she said. “You have to accept what you can control, life’s too short. “I wasn’t always this way. At high school, I had an undiagnosed eating disorder; I just wanted to be thin.” Her work sends a strong message about our culture of fat-shaming, and embracing the different ways we look. “It’s just about acceptance for how we are and how we’re made, because one word could be life or death. “You can’t presume anything about someone’s health by looking at them. That angers me immensely. Even when I was starving myself and playing soccer 40 to 50 hours a week, I was still a size six [Australian size eight] … my muscles were huge. I was never going to be a model, but I wanted it.” We don’t know what the people in these photos were thinking, but they tell a story about how superficial and judgmental we can be. Each captures a moment, holding a mirror up to how we watch others when we think no one is watching us.