Photodiaries: Sofa-trip around Europe by Paul Paper (March 19, 2010) 
(30 votes, average: 2.70 out of 5)
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Introduction by Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer
In many ways, the jobs of a photographer and a writer aren’t so terribly different. As editors of the website Sight Unseen, our role is to look at the world through a lens of our own making, gathering people’s stories. The photography that accompanies these written works on Sight Unseen could well stand on its own, but we’ve become accustomed to presenting images as source material to illustrate and interpret our stories. We seldom have the chance to put the imagery first. For our presentation on Bite! magazine this week, we seized the opportunity to do just that, reaching out to photographers with a keen narrative sense of their own. The series they present here are poignant visual essays with no need for translation. Many of the photographers we chose are documentarians, who peer into the lives of everyday people and record what they find there, the others are multidisciplinary artists with a gift for storytelling and creative composition.
Former editors at I.D. Magazine, the design magazine, writers Jill Singer and Monica Khemsurov are the co-founders of Sight Unseen, a new journalistic and curatorial consultancy.
Weblink: sightunseen.com
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Our poll "A photo essay always needs a great written story" closed. 267 people voted, 28% agrees, 72% disagrees. 233 people answered our follow-up question "Are you a photographer?" 82% indicated they are, 18% said no. Initially, negative answers to question #1 were almost 100% as was the pecentage of photographers among respondants. Then, when the level of non-photographers started to rise, the percentage of people indicating good text is always essential started to rise too. This seems to indicate that non-photographers think that adding good text to your photo essays is essential. In my opinion: if you want non-photographers to dig your work, you know what to do...
In late 2008, I took a trip around Europe for a project I decided to call Photodiaries. Before I left home, I spread news of my travel plans, looking for places to stay and for people who would host me on my way.
Fifty sofas, beds and mattresses in 41 cities and towns were offered and a route map was drawn up. It took me eight weeks to visit 15 sites across the continent.
This project portrays Europe through my eyes: the people I met and my experiences.
While very personal and intimate, it is also a universal glimpse into the joys, fears and loneliness of the long distance traveler. Photography is about perception. It’s not about giving something for the eyes to see but rather sharing something for the mind to perceive.
Paul Paper (1985) lives and works in Vilnius, Lithuania.
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[...] Sofa-trip around Europe” is featured in Bite! Magazine by guest curators Monica Khemsurov and Jill Singer (Sight Unseen). This entry was posted in [...]
The idea in the introducing text sounded really interesting. A pity the photos do not live up to that promise…
The photographs are not average “traveling set”, but they do convey something that is more important than capturing landmarks – mood and feeling.
some of these pictures were great but unfortunatley the poorer ones bring down the series.
i thought the interiors and unpeopled landscapes were excellent.