Rediscovering The Familiar Streets

Earlier today I came across a post suggesting 30 photographic goals for 2010. One of the goals calls for taking a photo walk at least once a month - “through a new town, trail, or area and find inspiration. Your eyes will be opened in a new way, and you will remember the euphoria of creative discovery.” It seems to imply that a new town/trail/area equals new discoveries/new outlook/new perspective, which very well can be so, however… What if we take a walk - say, once a week - through the town we’ve lived our entire life in; the town that is no different from any town that have Main street and Church street parallel to one another and that appears to be no than a blip on a map? What can we see? What will we see? Is there a room left for new discoveries on the streets we have taken for years? Are new discoveries bound by new locations, or does our capacity to see beyond familiar and through habitual reside within every one of us? What is that exactly that we are looking for? What makes us see things in a new light, in a new way? And when and if we find it, what is being revealed, unveiled, re-discovered? What is it? ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- All of these are valid questions - each and every one of them… If I answer some of them, I would have a key that unlocks the part within me that is speechless, and yet present enough to guide me when I look through the viewfinder walking down the streets of the small town I live in… I am looking for something… I know when the essence of that ‘something’ is in the air, I generally have a feel looking at the negatives of whether or not it has been captured and to what degree. I cannot express - yet - as to what I am looking for, as to what I am seeing, as to what I am striving to discover, capture, share with others… What is there to see? What is there that to discover? What is there so powerful that has the capacity to take hold of other people’s attention and make them look closely? What am I after?