Community Story Lab: A Photo DeTour

Armed with cameras, a map, and prompts for photographing, participants in this month's Drop-in Community Story Lab were invited to explore, meander, and get lost in the community on a Photo DeTour. Whether it was a Gaudi-esque fence, a garden full of jacks, or a hidden roundabout, each participant returned with photographic souvenirs from this Sunday scavenger hunt around Venice.

The Photo DeTour workshop was designed to inspire participants to look at the community from multiple perspectives and develop their skills as visual storytellers while encouraging team building. After a lesson in street photography at Venice Arts, participants were divided into teams and given DSLR cameras and field guides to help lead them through a tour through the neighborhood.

Each team chose one of eight possible pathways to start with, and tried to capture or set up photographs along the way, using the clues and hints provided as prompts for their visual exploration. Participants were encouraged to look through, below, and up above to see elements of the community that might otherwise be easily overlooked, and in doing so, experience a new way of seeing everyday surroundings. One participant remarked how surprised she was to discover all these hidden parts of a street she walks down everyday.

Want to take your own community scavenger hunt around Venice and rediscover the neighborhood? Download the map here.

What would be on your neighborhood hidden adventure map? Upload your response here.

Click here to find out more about the Community Story Lab Drop in Labs, or email meg@venicearts.org

The Community Story Lab is supported by a grant from The James Irvine Foundation.