I meet some fantastic people working in the social and digital ‘space’. But every so often, a project crosses my path that’s so cool - I just have to talk about it.
I’ve been a follower of Postsecret for some years now (got the book, read the t-shirt and all that) – and the desire for similar arts-based community projects never seems to wane. There’s ‘Before I Die I Want To’ as covered by the gorgeous Cate Sevilla last month, ‘Total Waste Of Time’ – which involves people taking photos of themselves in bathroom mirrors, and the slightly more voyeuristic ‘FOUND’, which has now evolved into an entire magazine.
So joy of joys, to find one born out of LDN. A few weeks ago, I’d seen a post on the Tuttle wiki informing us that Mario Cacciottolo would be coming along to our Friday morning meet and ‘doing what he does’. Intrigued much? I soon worked out by wandering into Tuttle that ‘his thing’ is get people to write a memorable piece of advice, conversation or in fact anything someone once told them on a A3 sketch pad, which he then documents by means of a beautiful black and white photo.
Turns out that Mario, BBC reporter by day (or night, actually), has been running the project - aptly entitled ‘Someone Once Told Me’ - for over a year now. According to the man himself, most projects in this ilk are presented in first person – it’s always the subjects feelings or thoughts that are portrayed. But this is second hand, with an interesting take on how old wives tales and various pieces of advice have been circulating around the world for centuries. I have to agree with him when he says that we’re all shaped by the stories of others – and this is a delicious way to document that.
One of the most interesting bits of the site is Mario himself, and the countless stories that roll off his tongue about how, where and why each shot is taken. This is probably a big contributor to the introduction of a mini biog for each shot. It’s the background and scenery that enriches each photo. After all, it’s surely the first thing that pops into everyone’s head when looking at the site– who told you that?
My favourite has to be the gem below, because he JUST DOES.
The site turned one on Sunday 7 September, 2008 and obviously, Mario’s chuffed that its growing into such a success: “When I first dreamed this all up I set myself the target of running the website for a year - so I'm delighted to have reached that milestone. Now I'm going to keep going for as long as I can, to hopefully get the site noticed by the media and therefore bring it to a wider audience.”
The site refreshes itself with a new photo each day, and as well as travelling around the world to take new photos, he’s happy to receive them via Mario at someoneoncetoldme dot com.
Photos courtesy of Benjamin Ellis, and Mario himself