Put Something... HERE!

My "Put Something Here" project was basically sixteen of my best Invisible City photographs, laminated, and hung with red thread on a fencepost that regularly holds messages and posters. I wrote on the back of the laminated sheets, in black sharpie, "This is Lancaster" so that anyone who saw the project would know that these photographs were taken right here in the neighborhood. I got the idea for the project while I was with a friend of mine. I showed him the photos and he took a look at them and exclaimed incredulously, "This is Lancaster?" I feel that people might have the same reaction in seeing some of these photographs because, frankly, many of them don't look like they belong on Lancaster or were even taken around the area. There's this large misconception that there's nothing beautiful in Lancaster, but I beg to differ. I think there's plenty of beautiful things, but they're merely overlooked by people who see them every day. I wanted this project to be semi-interactive and have people pick up the pictures, turn them over in their hands, and pick up another. I want them to see that this is indeed Lancaster and that these beautiful photos are, in fact, their own neighborhood.

*UPDATE*
Part 2 of the project was to add something to the site, and I decided to add the physical location of the places in which these photographs were taken so that people who wanted to find them could see the places I took the pictures. I wrote the directions to the location of where the pictures were taken in sharpie on the laminated back of the corresponding photograph. The only twist is that I didn't use an address or any universal geographic location to help people find the places I took pictures in; instead, I gave them specific directions from the art project itself directly to the places. I wanted people to take initiative, to follow directions in an analog way through their own free will if they so chose, and to see what I saw in the same place that I was in when I took the pictures. I wanted to give them a sense of the photographer's eye and what exactly is involved in taking photos like the ones I have.