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