Light of the world

Light me up
London, ON, March 2010

About this photo: We continue to share single-themed photos as part of this week's Thematic. We'll be doing the single thing right through Thursday, so if you've been waiting by the sidelines, follow your mouse here. Even if you've already shared, you can always share again. That might turn your single into a double, or even a triple, but it's a chance we're willing to take.

Some photographers travel the world in search of the spectacular, the iconic, the famous. They capture scenes that have graced postcards since postcards were first invented - when were they invented, anyway? - as they continue to find ways to paint the familiar in unfamiliar tones.

I don't travel the world. Not much, anyway. I typically travel much closer to home, on the otherwise unremarkable backstreets of a town that most Canadians tend to forget. I don't shoot Eiffel Towers or Vegas strips. Instead, I shoot whatever I find, wherever I find it, no matter how unspectacular it may seem to anyone else.

I'm good leaving the big stuff to others largely because it's not as easy coaxing a moment out of an otherwise forgettable subject. And I've never been into the easy stuff, anyway.

There's a functional honesty in to the ordinary places, scenes and moments we encounter closer to home. Because while someone walking down the Champs Elysee stands a better-than-even chance of bringing something famous home on his/her memory card, only someone walking down a desolate street near a chicken processing plant has any chance at all of capturing the things that no one else ever would.

Besides, who says the lights that guide us home aren't iconic in their own right?

Your turn: How do you capture the ordinary - photographic or not - in your own life?