Neighborhood | Little Library
I have a new project that I can't stop thinking about. It's called Neighborhood | Little Library, and the idea started the same way most things do for me: out for a stroll through the neighborhood. I was out on one of these walks with my camera in hand, when I noticed a small wooden box on a post. Hand-painted, an attached banner flapping in the breeze, filled with someone's old paperbacks, and a tiny metal plaque that said Little Free Library. I shot it on my Polaroid I-2, kept walking, and found another one two blocks later. Then another after that. Now I can't stop looking for them.
The project is simple: I walk neighborhoods around Portland making Polaroid photos of the Little Free Libraries people have built and placed outside their homes. Some are elaborate, handmade cabinets with tiny hinges and a working latch. Some are a combination of book library and seed library. All of them were put there by someone who just decided, quietly, to do a small good thing for their community, and I find that genuinely moving in a way I don't feel the need to over-explain.
There's no shot list, no locations scouted in advance. Sometimes I'm in my own neighborhood, sometimes I park somewhere I've never been and just start walking. The Polaroid keeps it honest — one frame, no do-overs, and all the beautiful imperfections that this medium brings with it. Either the shot works or it doesn't; oftentimes I am blocks away before the shot is even fully developed. And there's something about the format that just fits the subject.
Polaroids are physical objects.
Little libraries are physical objects.
Both are stubborn analog holdouts in a world that's decided everything should be digital and frictionless and fast; I like things that push back on that a little.
I don't know exactly where this project is going: maybe a zine, maybe a book, maybe it just lives on my shelf in a box. Right now I'm not worried about it. I'm just walking.
Working on this project has conveniently coincided with my own resurgence for the love of reading. I’ve been challenging myself quite a bit this year with monthly goals through the Margins app. I may have been a little too ambitious with some of these page counts, but there is something exhilarating about getting lost in a 900+ page book. Some of the literary adventures I’ve been on this year include:
The Mistborn Trilogy by Brandon Sanderson (Era 1 only so far)
Vengeful by V.E. Schwab
Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
Bury Our Bones in the Midnight Soil by V.E. Schwab
King Sorrow by Joe Hill
Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
The Art of Spending Money by Morgan Housel
Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
Tolkien by Humphrey Carpenter
In short, reading is sick and you should do it. Let this also be your friendly reminder that the little slice of Socialism and community that libraries provide is also sick. Visit your public library, or go online, and get yourself a library card. There is a whole world of books out there just waiting for you to discover them. And if you ever have the opportunity, stop by the next Little Free Library you pass, take a peak inside, and see if there is a journey beckoning you. Or, better yet, drop off one of your favorites for someone else to experience and enjoy.
If you want to learn more about the Little Free Library program, check it out here. It’s a fantastic program, and they even sell kits for you to get started building a little library of your very own.
More images coming soon, keep an eye on the project page for the latest photos. If you've got a favorite little library in your Portland neighborhood you think I should find, shoot me a message.
MAKE PHOTOS, WORLD PEACE. 🤘
