100 Cities : In Living Color

One of the main reasons for all my travel is my “100 Cities” book I’m currently working on. This is my main personal project and I hope to complete it in 2-3 years. I have around a quarter finished now and should be about half way done by the end of 2016.

It’s only tentatively titled, but just like the name says, the final book will contain photos from one hundred cities. There is more to it than that, though, so since this project is such a big part of the blog, I thought I’d give you all some details behind it.

The Project’s Focus:

100 Cities

The final book will include photos from 100 cities spanning 6 continents. I’m focusing on spreading the cities out as much as I can to give a range of countries, cultures, life and scenery. I’m also focusing mostly on the bigger and more well known cities in different countries, but I will try to mix in a few smaller cities.

I’ll visit and photograph more than 100 cities to be safe, but depending on the photos and curation, some won’t make the final cut. Some cities will have more than one photo that make it into the book too, as I plan on including around 150 photos.

In Living Color

Life in color. I’m focusing on color for this book so there will be no black & white. I’m looking for color to be an important aspect visually. I have a different view on “color vs black & white” photography than some photographers. For me, color contains more life. To quote the famous street photographer Joel Meyerowitz:

“A color photograph gives you a chance to study and remember how things look and feel in color. It enables you to have feelings along the full wavelength of the spectrum, to retrieve emotions that were perhaps bred in you from infancy… Color is always part of experience. Grass is green, not gray; flesh is color, not gray. Black and white is a very cultivated response.”

Another reason I chose color is that I feel it captures a specific time better. In my opinion, black & white can have a nostalgic, older feeling it adds, while removing many aspects of the time, while color adds and reflects the time. I do appreciate black & white photography, and it has its own strengths, but I just don’t feel it adds to this project like color can.

Life Around the World

I’m spreading out the cities across 6 continents and many countries so I can show a wide variety of life around the world. Travel provides a look at so many different cultures with their own history, customs, scenery, and life. It’s fascinating to see how different we all are and live.

At the same time, it can also be fascinating to see some of the similarities we all, as humans, share, even in the most different of environments. I hope to capture some of this too within the variety of cities.

People, Time and Place

Photography can capture a people, time and place all in one split second click of the shutter. For me, this might be the most powerful thing about photography. When looking at older photos, you can see a time and place that is no longer possible to see in real life. Documenting the world we live in during times that have passed is so interesting and important to me that I hope I can capture some of that in this project. 

Candid Moments within Day-to-Day Life

Sometimes, ordinary life can be extraordinary. This usually goes unseen and passes without a thought, though. Finding and capturing these moments and scenes within day-to-day life is a big focus of the project. Capturing them candidly is another focus. Authentic moments can never be duplicated exactly and I want that to show in the book.

Humanity

At the center of all the photos will be humanity. This will be the primary focus of each photo, but there won’t be a focus on pulling emotional strings. The focus will be on capturing humanity authentically in daily life and letting the viewer pull what they want from it. I will try to show this using a mix of both humanity “up close and personal” and in layered scenes. There won’t be any portraits, though, as candidness will be central to the capturing of humanity.

The Project + The Blog

There will be more to the project than this, but hopefully this gives everyone a good idea of what’s going on with it. The whole time working on the project, I’ll continue writing plenty of photography related posts for each city I go too, including first impressions, street photos, street photography tips, interviews with local street photographers, and in-depth Street Photography guides for most of the cities. And if there’s any requests for new posts that might be helpful while I’m working on this project, just comment below!

The 100 Cities’ List Page

I’ve created a page listing where I’ll add each I city I visit, in order, with the most recent number being the city I am currently in. I’ll include any upcoming and planned cities too. So you can always check back to see where I’m at, where I’ve been, and what cities are next. 

I’ll also include city links to provide an easy way for finding blog posts I’ve already created for the specific cities I’ve traveled to.

And if you have any questions or city recommendations, feel free to comment below!

Cheers!

f.d. walker

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