Saturday, October 17, 2009

san francisco bay area+san diego, by steph

thank you for letting me be part of your project. merci!
I carried them with me for awhile...waiting for the right place and then picking the right polaroid for that place.
I'd shuffle the polaroids around, get a feel for the place and then I would place them!


I put a bunch at the Rose Garden; it's one of my favorite places.
It was my graced refuge when I first came to Oakland and still is.

I am going to post these photos on my blog too!- after you put them up on your site.

with love, sl

Saturday, April 26, 2008

traveling the midwest, by holly

I wanted to take these pictures with me on this trip, because I was following Hanson on tour to four of their shows, and Hanson gives me hope. It's rare today to see celebrities use their fame for something good. Prior to each concert they host a one-mile barefoot walk around the venue to raise awareness for Toms Shoes - a company that donates a pair of shoes for a child in poverty with every pair of shoes that is purchased. Hanson have also been doing a lot of work raising awareness for the AIDS epidemic in Africa, and their song "Great Divide" is available on iTunes as a charity single to help support HIVSA. During the walk in Indianapolis I was able to talk to Isaac Hanson about The Polaroid Community and how it's a project to inspire hope, and I gave him one of the photos and he thought it was really neat. I placed the rest of the photos up while on these one-mile walks.

"I find hope and it gives me rest/I find hope in a beating chest/I find hope in what eyes don't see/I find hope in your hate for me/Have no fear when the waters rise/We can conquer this great divide" - Hanson

Sunday, August 26, 2007

nashville, by holly

Picture #1

I left this photo in Bongo Java, a coffee shop on the east side of town. I left it there because I find hope in coffee and conversation.


Picture #2

The elevator at my workplace. I left it there because I find hope in knowing that God has provided me with an income that is just enough for my needs.

Picture #3

This is a monument at the geographic center of Tennessee, in Murfreesboro. I didn't even know the place existed, but on a spur of a momtn thing, my friend took me there. I left the phot there because I find hope in sponteniety.

Picture #4

This photo is on a vending machine in my church, which meets in a building that is also a music venue and a skate park. I left it there because I find hope in the community of believers.

Picture #5

This photo is next to a phone in the women's hospital. I left it there because hospital patients and visitors need hope, and also because there are children being born there everyday, and I find hope in new life.

Picture #6

This photo is on the wall outside the Belcourt Theatre, a music venue here in town. I left it there because I find hope in the music experience.

Photo #7

This photo is next to the outdoor menu at The Pancake Pantry, a popular restaurant for locals and tourists alike. I left it there because I find hope in good food with good friends.

Friday, August 17, 2007

ukraine and austria, by randy

1) polaroid placed on rugged sign outdoors (Belagorsk, Crimean penninsula Ukraine)
I only got a few of these shots cause we were on a mountain pass near belagorsk and just as I started taking the pictures our driver said we had to go cause the vehicle was overheating. The trees around the sign were filled with torn cloth that were tide to the branches by people who thought the place was beautiful. there was a spring there with clear clean water and a couple passing through on their way to the black sea.

2) polaroid on placed on glass door to a store (Kiev, Ukraine)
I had alot of time in airport in kiev to watch people. Before I left the airport I saw a little kid who looked lost put his hands and face on the window just before he started crying and then ran off.

Vienna Austria

3) polaroid in an alley with a view of the street. (close to St Stephens Platz, vienna)
While I was in vienna I was sick but I didnt let that stop me from wandering around the city. this is the view from a quiet cafe in an alley close to St. Stephens cathedral where I found the most amazing free bathroom. I was very thankful here

4) polaroid on glass with people standing behind (vienna subway)
I put this one up on the subway at the beginning on the line and took it to the end all the while watching people interact with the photo

5) polaroid on white background (hostel huttledorf, vienna)
I was extremely sick this last day in vienna. I stayed in bed most of the day and missed a mozart concert. I'm afraid I wasnt very adventurous so I wandered as far as I dared and put it up as an act of defiance against the sickness

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

joshua on the road

"What gives you hope?"

It has been really interesting trying to answer that question in a way that is honest to myself as well as to the viewer. What gives me hope? Who gives me hope?

For ten years now, my grandparents have treated our entire family (15+) on vacation to the Outer Banks of North Carolina where we would spend a week together in an Oceanfront House. I remember the first year being overwhelmed at the sight of the ocean. I had never seen something go so wide and so far. As years progressed, our entire family has grown closer and the relationships developed into something that probably wouldn’t have been if it weren’t for our yearly vacations.

I sit here writing this response the day after returning home from the Outer Banks. I feel exhausted—drained, rather. This year’s trip was set in stone seven months ago. It became the ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ for many things.

It’s in watching my family interact.
It’s in the grains of sand that cover miles of beach
In the wave’s persistence
In the steady sun
And In the violent storms that roll in at night

It gives me hope that there is something greater. Something beyond what the world teaches me to expect. When I ask myself “what gives me hope”, it is unity. When I ask myself “Who gives me hope?”, it is everyone.

When I ask myself “Who has given me hope”— it is God, his Son, and the Holy Spirit.
-------------------------------


The Polaroids were taped along the road trip back home, ironically, providing visual reminders of what gives me hope.

Monday, May 14, 2007

matt in nashville

My adventure started when I first knew that I would be going to Nashville, TN this summer as an intern for Hatch Show Print. I heard of Kelley's project and figured it was something I would like because it involved sort of a reverse scavenger hunt. It involved making others pay attention and I wanted to explore this and embrace her projects in some of the most famous parts of Nashville, that way to make whoever found the photographs have a more memorable experience.

We first went to the Parthenon in Centennial Park which was a lifesize replica of the original in athens, Greece. I tried to stay intentional choice on what pictures to use in what environments. I put the graffiti polaroid on the bronze cast plate as a contrast, for no one would ever want to see graffiti on the classical monument. The second photo was mostly placed for fun on a bronze lion head acting on a doorway. It was funny to see bypasser's faces while we were taking pictures of a picture.

Then we went to Broadway, the most historic and famous parts of Nashville. I but a photo on a commemorative guitar on "Legend's Corner." The Guitar was painted with such great musicians as: Dolly Parton, Johnny Cash, Charlie Daniels, and Elvis. It was almost sacreligous for us to do this yet nevertheless we discretly did the deed. Later on that day we found the photo was moved to a nearby stop sign post.

The fourth photo was put on the Hatch sign in front of the store, this was more for my own amusement, yet Hatch is an important Historic part of the city and considers so by the US Department of the Interior.

The fifth photo placement involved the most risk. I put the photo up on the spinning guitar sign at the Hard Rock Cafe. This seemed fitting in music city. It was a picture of flowers, which there was a flower garden right underneath the sign. The risk involved trying to avoid anyone from seeing us do the deed with a festival around nearby. The great part was the photo was still on the sign a day later, still spinning around.

This placement of photos was a lot of fun and I know I would enjoy finding one of these polaroid. I love participating in such projects as it reminds me when I was a kid and anytime I would get a helium balloon I would write my name and address on a card and tie it to the string and send it off in the sky hoping that I would get a response.

The hope is something that can be felt on both sides of the project. The obvious to me is having hope that someone will respond to their found photograph, and the hope instilled in those who find the photos.

I "hope" Kelley's sees the success in her project and that it can grow into even more than she can imagine.

Matt Blinco

krista in san antonio

May 4th 2007; the adventure begins. Woke up at 5 am to arrive at the airport in time for my 740 flight to San Antonio with a layover in Chicago. Headed to training to go to Africa in July. I am now, for all intensive purposes, an adult.
People are generally friendly - at least in the Indianapolis airport. The question for this adventure is: "what gives you hope?"
People give me hope. Those who offer kind words and friendly smiles. Friends who love you and care for you through the perplexities of life - these give me hope. My friend gave me hope with her honesty and love and the peace of her apartment and the breakfast she provided.
The stories of this old man give me hope.
He is a man who must be at least 80, he sits in his wheel chair with a cap proclaiming he fought in World War II and Korea and he seems eager to share his stories with me. He is a black man who fought in a war where the color of his skin meant he was separated and treated as less than his white counterparts. He lived through the Civil Rights movement but only eludes to that in order to explain that the schools in Texas were not good due to segregation and that he was glad to move to Indiana.
He is a friendly fellow who spoke with passion. He talked a little about his kids (6 girls and 1 boy), grandkids, and greatgrandkids. He is headed to Texas, but he doesn't like the weather much, he prefers the weather of Indiana. This is interesting because I usually hear only complaints about how fickle Indiana weather can be.
He talked about the war and how the Iraq war is Bush's war. He compared Bush to Hitler - only in America could he get away with saying that. He has fought in two wars, lived through the Civil Rights movement, raised seven kids, and still has hope. He vehemently disagrees with this war for it is not a war for America but a war for Bush and his oil. He claims if he were in charge he would do things differently and proceeded to explain to me what and how. Despite all his ranting he was a joyful and thankful old man eager to impart wisdom on young listening ears.
I am thankful to have met him for he brings me hope. Hope that life can have lasting joy and meaning. Hope that freedom comes even if it takes pain. That is the story of one man I met. I met many other individuals on this excursion and I heard many stories. I heard from peers with passion and from older and wiser adults their stories and ambitions. I found encouragement to pursue my dreams and hope that my life can make a difference. I had many opportunities to share and many opportunities to listen and through it all I found hope. Hope that life can be lived to the fullest wherever you wind up and that if you choose you can make a difference.
I posted four pictures. One in the hotel lobby where it sits joyfully between the flowers, one on a blue door along the River Walk, one on the Vietnam Memorial - in honor of all the stories I heard about war on this adventure and one behind the tray on the seat back in front of me on the flight from Chicago back to Indy.
Stories shared bring hope.