November 4, 2007
Fulton and Montrose Flickr group
We’ve got a Fulton and Montrose Flickr group set up. Join and share your photos of the people and places, past and present, that make up the neighborhood. Recent and random photos from the group are displayed in a set down the right side of this site, under the search form.
Flickr is a website that lets people post, group, and share pictures. A space has been set up there there for people to share any photographs from the area, past&present.
To add to the collection, you’ll need an account at Flickr (which is free!). Then, join the Fulton and Montrose Flickr group. You will be able to select which photos of yours that you would like to add to the public pool.
If this sounds like too much for you but you’d still like to add some photos, email them to info@greaterfultonnews.org and we’ll post them for you.
This is the interesting part… With cameras in the hands of the younger people, we’re going to get to see the world through their eyes.
The great thing is that there is a young person walking around Fulton taking pictures, getting them online, and putting these really dry, funny captions together. This nascent photographer could be the next Weegee or Dorothea Lange. And, by being a part of the flickr group (and this site by extension), they are engaging in a sort of dialog with the world, of a tentative civic engagement, that can really broaden horizons (theirs and ours).
I wouldn’t sweat the “gang sign” stuff too much, either. Kids in the neighborhood throw the “F” to proudly say that they are from Fulton. Kids in the other areas of the East End have their own thing. Is this really a gang sign, or just geography? (There is a also a photo of some old guy in a hoodie that says “23rd Street” — is this different?)
The gun infatuation is worrisome to me, too. I take that photo as a kid playing at being something, and a warning. If there were a whole rash of gun worship photos submitted, I can see being inclined to contact the photographer and see if he/she would pull them from the photo group.
This is something that the folks running the site are going to need to have guidelines on. Running chpn by myself, it is pretty easy to make it up as I go along.
I agree with John. Looks like the work of a young Fulton resident out there taking pictures. I recognize a few of those faces :)
I certainly wouldn’t deem them inappropriate. Truly they are evocative glimpses into the lives of our young people. Our neighbors.
Thanks for sharing duvmeon4.
Leave the kids alone, go after that old guy with the 23rd St T-shirt on. scary.
Awaiting further offline discussion and per request, images from the the Fulton and Montrose flickr group are no longer automatically displayed on the site.
[...] when a younger neighborhood photographer found the site and uploaded images (such as the above), igniting a small controversy. Much offline back-and-forth has resulted in all of the photos from the pool being pulled from the [...]
Fresh pictures at Fulton Hill All Day
In regard to the ‘gang signs’ in the pictures. Every neighborhood in Richmond does have a sign that the kids throw to show where they’re from. Look at the Lil Scabz picture called Unity in the Bathroom ( http://www.flickr.com/photos/fultonallday/2111227122/ ) Those hardcore ‘gang members’ are showing the Fulton Hill sign on the right and the 30th St sign on the left (3 fingers and an ‘O’ (Like the OK sign)) It doesn’t mean that they’re gang members…if anything, they’re proud of where they come from.
This Flickr issue has become like the Tree issue( http://www.inrich.com/cva/ric/news.apx.-content-articles-RTD-2007-11-21-0175.html ) . One or two citizens who are afraid of what they don’t understand start complaining and in doing so attempt to sterilize what everybody else sees. Putting your head in the sand isn’t going to make it go away.
Here’s a primer on hand signs (mostly from LA) in case anybody wants to start their own ‘gang’ ;)http://www.francesfarmersrevenge.com/stuff/archive/oldnews6/signs.htm.
FULTON HILL! REPRESENT!
Ben Stein is burstin’ with Fulton pride?
Nah, it’s just his backhand version of “the shocker”.