A glimpse into everyday life

Written by Adrian Holovaty on August 23, 2002

Simon Hoegsberg's site, "Private the Public" (Flash required), is a collection of "snapshots of pedestrians who happened to walk into the frame of the camera" on a street in London. So normal, yet so fascinating. (Link seen on WebWord)

I'd bet a news site would be flooded with traffic if it started posting random, artful photos of normal people from around town. People would eat this up. Naturally, they'd would want to see whether they knew any of the subjects -- and whether they themselves were subjects. (Besides, people are on a big "reality" kick, what with reality TV and all that.)

Some might say this isn't journalism -- not to mention it might be a little Big Brother-ish -- but I think glimpses into the lives of normal people is a much more honest documentation of the day's events than the crap a lot of news organizations shove in front of our faces.

Comments

Posted by Holly on August 23, 2002, at 8:46 p.m.:

I agree. What a refreshing idea to catch a snapshot of normal, everyday people, because let's face it, most people are normal, everyday people. I'm so sick of the media being slave to the government and organizations wanting some PR. Most people don't care that the United Way just "kicked off" its new fundraising drive or that the mayor spoke to industry representatives. Tell me something I didn't already know.

I think the snapshots are a great way to draw people into a website. And who cares if it does or doesn't fit into the journalism norm? I think we need to focus more on giving people what they want sometimes and not what we think they should be reading or looking at.

Comments have been turned off for this page.