Documenting your town

I'm giving myself the project of documenting/capturing the essence of

my town through my eyes. I don't have an immediate time table for

the completion.

 

Have any of you taken on such a project? Have you had any problems

along the way?

If it is a serious project for you, this recent NG story might give you some inspiration:

<a href="http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0405/feature2/index.html">

30 years in the life of Cuba, Kansas

</a>

I've been doing this for some time. The only problem I can think of is finding a coherence to the project so that the images appear to have a unity or theme.

Hi Kelvin -- Yes, I'm on a project along these lines, but with a more modest goal. I'm shooting people in their work environment, doing their work. At this point it's limited to people with whom I have a business/work-related contact... Which turns out to be surprisingly broad-based. By far the most shots (but not quite all) are around this town, which is relatively small at about 15,000 population. You can see some of the work in my portfolio here: http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=365099<div></div>

I've shot a lot in Vancouver's Chinatown which is situated in Strathcona, my neighbourhood. I'm partial to Asian culture anyhow, but it's also the closest place to me where there's real vital street life. My intention isn�t so much as to �document�, but to simply learn street photography. In the process I�ve created a fairly sizeable archive. People there are use to seeing tourists wandering around with cameras so my shooting is no big deal to most people. I'm starting to get feed back and recognition from people as they've seen me repeatedly and are starting to wonder what's up with the camera all the time.<p>

 

 

 

<center><img src="http://members.shaw.ca/mywebspace88/cantoneseboy.jpg"></center> </p> <center><i>Cantonese Boy</i></center>

I've been working on documenting Nashville for several years.

There are subsets of images based on geographical locations

(my neighborhood, downtown, etc.) or thematic locations/events

(dive bars, parties, art openings, etc.). Other than the huge

investment in time and the substantial investment in film/paper/

chemicals, I haven't had problems.

Kelvin,

 

I've been working on something very similar in nature. For the past six months I've spent the majority of my time with small family farmers documenting their life on the farm. Now within the past few weeks I have gotten out and shot within the community. What I'm trying to show is how the decay of the family farm echoes throughout the surrounding communities. Today I spent all day shooting at my former grade school. Felt odd seeing both the second and third grade classes combined and have only a total of seven kids when just some years back in the same classroom my grade had 19 kids. A time table is nice, but more importantly atleast for me is just getting out and shooting. Be seen and share your work with people in the community and let them know how passionate you are about it. I'm starting to run into the same people over and over at places I go. Hopefully by the end of the summer the whole community will know what I'm working on. That's when I know my coverage of the issue is becoming more saturated and hopefully will only blossom more from there. Good luck and keep us posted.<div></div>

Great idea. And, the web now makes it pretty painless to share and archive such efforts. In the late '60s I was living in NYC and decided to do a little <a href="http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=219679">hipshot documentary</a> on Chinatown. I worked on it for a few weeks while attending a brief photo school course in lower Manhattan. My idea was to assemble a time slice that showed the generations from very young to very old and some of the interactions and complexities of life in the community. I'm glad I did it.<br><center><img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/868200-lg.jpg"></center>

My Town attracted me from another area because it had soul. Now it is becoming an "upscale community" instead of a "town" and so I am scurrying around with my irish wolfhound and my pinhole camera and gitzo tripod trying to capture things before they are gone forever. I like using the pinhole because I get to talk to people who are curious about the odd setup and the long exposures (asa 25) allows me to talk them while the light makes the picture.

don't know why my image isn't showing up in the comments as it is 500x336 pixels.

Yes, and it's been ongoing since 1965. It was a classic 19th century industrial town - coal mines, brickyards, railways, iron foundries etc. Over the years I have documented the demise of, first, the railways, then the collieries, then the brickyards and the potteries. Now it's just a dormitory town for the nearest large town and cities. My only problem is that I left the town some 27 years ago and so I am now only able to add to the catalogue on the odd occasions when I revisit it. I wish I has been able to shoot more film in past years.

Philadelphia, across the street from Independence Hall<div></div>

If you can get a look at or buy a copy of Dream Street, Eugene Smith's Pittsburgh project book, it might offer some ideas, from subject, time of day, composition, and then the juxtaposition of one image to another, one place to another in your town. Just a thought. Anyway, it is a great book, even if it doesnt help.

i LOVE that shot. very cool.

im doing brooklyn, altho i think it might take a few generations...

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<img src="http://s93887327.onlinehome.us/bk/familypix.jpg">

Great shot.

I do this routinely (downtown Tacoma, WA) at lunch and some weekend days where I work. I like to look at historic photos and find where the same perspective to see the changes. But more importantly I've learned you can't go often enough or take enough photos. We're going through a revitalization and losing many older, unoccupied buildings, and are losing our history, so many opportunities are quickly lost. Also, with all the construction, it's a great opportunity to document the work, but it also gets in the way of some shots (those pesky cranes and fences). I shot agfapan 100/400 and don't worry about how much film I use, you never know what the future holds for the photos.

 

Good luck with your project.