So I have this idea for a…thing. A blog?

August 12, 2015 10:20 PM

My partner and I have decided to give each other one Saturday off a month from parenting our toddler to pursue a personal project. I’ve always been interested in the vernacular of domestic architecture and would like to move on from my years of walking the streets taking photos of local houses and keeping them on my computer. My curiosity will not be sated - I need to get inside those same houses and take photos and I’d like to share them with a like-minded audience.

So my plan is:
1. Find people who are willing to let me photograph their homes. I’m actually not too worried about this as I’m a member of a local buy, swap sell group with nearly 19,000 members who usually love to get involved in and are very supportive of community projects.
2.Send the participants are very brief questionnaire to complete. Some example questions are: Who lives here?
When and why did you choose to move in?
What is special about your home?
3. Arrange to visit and photograph four homes on my allotted project-day.
4. Publish online pictures of one home per week, using Instagram and Facebook to alert people that a new post is up.
At this point in my imaginings, I’m not interested in photographing the occupants. I’d rather let the homes tell their own story as well as keep them unidentifiable. I’m also not interested in making money off this but I would like to be able to build an audience.

So my questions here (I got there eventually) are:
Do you see any potential problems with what I’ve outlined?
Should I get participants to sign some form of disclaimer stating that any photos taken are my own property only?
What is the best way to publish this? If I set up a blog, which platform would you recommend? Or would in be better to publish this as a magazine?

posted by Wantok to Media & Arts (11 answers total)

Really cool idea! I wonder if it should maybe be more focused? What in particular about the homes is most interesting to you? Inside decor? Outside architecture? Personal possessions? Knowing what you're looking for in general going in will probably help your blog find its voice.

Also, unless your town is really small and travel time negligible, four photo shoots a day seems like a lot? What do you do if you get into a good conversation with one of the homeowners?

One of my friends is a photographer who specializes in photos of families with kids. The project that garnered the most attention for her was one where she focused that down to photos of families in their own homes before 8am.
posted by MsMolly at 10:49 PM on August 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

Excellent idea, I'd totally read/follow this. I'd probably be most interested in a blog +facebook for reminders, but I'm pretty old.

What if the family wants prints? I think it would be a nice thing to give them a physical copy of a photo you really liked as a thank you, but it'd also be awesome if you could somehow give them the option of printing out there own.

Ask about the history of the house. They might not know, but their neighbours might. I'd also get in touch with the local library, and see if they have any info from when they were built. I'm also a huge fan of floor plans, which may already exist if they house has changed hands recently.

I agree that four in one day is a lot of work, and I think the actually publishing of the blog may take more time than you think. I seem to remember reading somewhere that the 52 suburbs blog took 3 full days a week.
posted by kjs4 at 11:12 PM on August 12, 2015 [3 favorites]

If I were asked to be part of this project, I'd worry that either you were casing my home, or that the blog would allow EVERYONE to case my home. So maybe prepare stock reassurances to head off those assumptions.
posted by showbiz_liz at 5:08 AM on August 13, 2015 [6 favorites]

Although I would totally follow such a project, there's no way I would let you inside my house if you were also going to be publishing outside photos. The risk is just too great that someone will recognize my house and be intrigued by a) my awesome stuff (ha!), and b) how little security I actually have.
posted by SuperSquirrel at 6:44 AM on August 13, 2015 [4 favorites]

This is pretty similar to the series of house tours published on Apartment Therapy so you might want to go there for inspiration and ideas.
posted by HoteDoge at 7:30 AM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

Homes on the historic register are required to be "open to the public" at least one day a year. This might let you get in to see some homes you otherwise wouldn't. Generally they are on some sort of organized tour where admission is paid and you can visit all the houses on the tour. Often these will be connected with some sort of charitable group, figure out what the local groups are and get on their mailing lists.

Or would in be better to publish this as a magazine?

If you are considering publishing a paper magazine and distributing it, this project is going to take up a lot more time than you have available.
posted by yohko at 8:40 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I second Apartment Therapy. They often have calls for contributions like THIS ONE, which is old, but might give you a good lead on whom to contact. An additional bonus is that this gives you the credibility of blogging for a known site.

Good luck! Sounds like a fun project!
posted by Rage-chel at 9:39 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

You'll need to allot time for promotion to get much attention, I tend to think. (I'm thinking of things like setting up the Facebook page, emailing similar blogs and arranging to do guest posts on one another's blogs, keeping up on Twitter, contacting podcasts on the topic, etc.) Also, if you photograph four homes and then just publish one, won't you build up a backlog?

What about this as a workflow?
Even weeks: AM, photo two homes; PM, post one
Odd weeks: AM, post the other; PM, arrange next week's shoots and do promotion

I'm assuming that you ONLY have that day available, but if you have lots of time in the evening for promotion and posting, then that's different. Good luck -- sounds neat!
posted by salvia at 10:22 AM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

I don't have any advice (although like other commenters, I thought about apartment therapy too-I literally just switched over from that site) but give us a link once you get up and going! I would totally follow, I love things like this.
posted by sillysally at 12:35 PM on August 13, 2015 [1 favorite]

Homes on the historic register are required to be "open to the public" at least one day a year.
If you're talking about the US National Historic Register, that's not correct. "National Register listing places no obligations on private property owners. There are no restrictions on the use, treatment, transfer, or disposition of private property." Source. Besides, there are not a lot of "vernacular" houses on the Register. They tend to be either great examples of actual architectural style, or places where something historic happened.
posted by beagle at 1:08 PM on August 13, 2015 [2 favorites]

I’d rather let the homes tell their own story as well as keep them unidentifiable.
That's the key. To do this, you might format your blog as a series of posts on specific features of vernacular-style buildings, rather than features that each show one specific house inside and out. So you might do posts on front doors; garden gates; dormers; chimneys, windows, etc. And if you can get invited in, you can do posts on interior features: kitchens, bathrooms, fireplaces, stairways, etc. I think you'd be filling a niche and taking a refreshingly different tack from the standard Apartment Therapy type post.
posted by beagle at 1:13 PM on August 13, 2015 [3 favorites]