Choosing a follow up project is an endeavor that can be quite exciting, especially if you have the freedom to pick and choose what you want to do. It can also be an anxiety-inducing nightmare. Even if it is the latter, people with creative aspirations cannot help but put themselves through the stress in the hopes of finding a project that is going to be something new, fun and worthwhile. In 2013, that project was North of Boston, a collection of photos of the beaches and shores of several communities on the North Shore of Massachusetts. The follow up project was an attempt to make a motion picture based on said book that would feature Marlon Brando as the Massachusetts North Shore. That project sadly fell through when it was discovered that Brando was no longer with us.
With a window of creativity and opportunity open, several ideas were bounced around: a collection of nighttime photography of the city of Boston in black-and-white, a Cape Cod photography book or a book of time-lapse photography. All three of those projects may come to fruition at some point and will be worked upon from time to time during 2014. But the one idea, the one that came to mind a few weeks ago and hasn’t left since, is the one that will become the Next Big Project for this year and the summer of 2015: a cross country photography trip.
I know what you’re saying: a photographic essay on America? Now there’s something…original. True, there have been a million road trips taken by photographers in the hopes of capturing the new and old face of the American landscape and its citizens and probably twice as many books released on the subject. But the great thing about a project like this one is that no two trips are the same, no two projects are the same. I’m excited not only by the possibility of this project, but also of the types of photos I will get along the way. In going across the United States and taking as many pictures of this nation’s people, places and things as possible, I think that the possibility of producing one to two books along with prints, calendars and postcards will surface. A new gallery or two on the website may materialize as well.
Okay, maybe three or four.
As the road trip aspect of this project is roughly 13 months out, nothing has been set in stone yet. Logistics for a project such as this are pretty daunting and will take some time to properly fund, plan and execute. The first part of the project, taking place this summer and fall throughout New England, is obviously easier to accomplish. One of the items to work out is the actual route from east to west. There are some places that I will definitely hit and others that I will definitely avoid. If you have any suggestions on what you think would be cool to have photographed and included in the project, they can be sent to me either via the “Contact” page on my website, my Facebook page or via email at sfitzgeraldphoto@gmail.com.
You can find updates on this and other projects here on my blog throughout the year. I hope you’ll join me in what I hope to be the biggest project of my life so far. I can’t help but smile at the prospects.
Shawn Fitzgerald Photography 