Recently, Ferguson Katzman Photography hosted a fun, and thoroughly engaging event: dArt St Louis. The premise was simple. They projected a large map of the St Louis metro area onto a wall. Your job was to drink a beer (if you so desired) and throw a dart against the wall to see where you should go to take a photo. About 100 folks showed up and hoisted a dart. My location was the intersection of St Louis and Newstead Ave., in the north side of the Lou.
Which leads me to comment on the two aspects of this collective art project that I find so invigorating.
1. This was Art for Art’s sake. There was no competition, nothing other than a fun project and an opportunity to interact with like-minded peers. And the idea of throwing a dart helped facilitate my next point, which is:
2. By throwing a dart, a person was almost guaranteed to go explore a section of the city that person had never been to before. Would I have ever gone to the intersection of St. Louis and Newstead without the throw of that fateful dart? Odds are, never.
How exciting to see a part of the city that you are completely unfamiliar with. And it was a bit of a daunting task to live up to my own expectations, thinking about the other folks that were out there taking photos. many of them professional photographers themselves.
I submit the photos that I finally ended up on. I’m happy with them, and loved the experience. Thank you to F/K Photo for the idea, and hosting the event. It’s not very often that something like that can stimulate the creativity of an individual, while fostering community and a deeper appreciation of the city that surrounds you.
You can see the rest of the photos, taken by many talented people, here, at the dArt St Louis web pages.
