Why document where you live?
This is of course a personal opinion, but i’m always fascinated to see pictures of where I grew up, and where I live now in the decades gone by. The difference in style and fashion or people, the design changes in the automotive world. I always love to see buildings that are still standing now from 100 years ago.
Seeing the past is one thing, but the imagination takes over and then I wonder what life would have been like compared to the now. At that point I have to research the history of a place, and more often than not their history is pretty astounding.
Just these small reasons is enough for me to try and document where I live so maybe in the future, someone like me will see them and wonder the same things I do.
How to document where you live?
Now this is the big question isn’t it. How? To be perfectly honest, I don’t think I can give a concrete answer to this. As humans we are all different and have a different perspective on life and what matters, as photographers we have our own way of taking pictures. Some may just want to shoot still images of the architecture, others the people.
So with that said, I’ll give my take.
Having people in the images can often give a time to when an image was taken. The clothing they were wearing can be an indication of era. People is the work makes it have life, something we can all relate too.
I have been working on a project for the last few years attempting to do just this, and have started it over 3 times. It really isn’t easy, but so worth while. If not for you then for the future generations to see.
Thats just my opinion, photographing the buildings, old and new can be just as important and nothing wrong with that approach neither.
Difficulties documenting a small town?
The hardest thing I’ve struggles with when trying to document my local area, is the suspicion that I get. Its not everyone I must say but the few that are, you can’t help but let it get to you and it can effect the way you shoot.
If anyone does stop and ask what you are doing, or why. Make sure you have a clear answer to put their minds at rest. Its almost like having a sales pitch memorized.
Last weekend I was out and I had a lovely lady stop and ask what I was doing. After explaining she was more curious and interested in what I was doing and why, rather than suspicion.
Is there a chance of a confrontation? Sure, of course there is. But in all my years taking pictures on the streets, protests. I’ve only had one confrontation and it was resolved in 1 minute and was no drama at all, so the probability of this happening is very small!
Anyway, I’m back to the storyboard and notebook to figure out the best approach for this small project.
Cheers!