In this quite frankly, awesome industry that I find myself working in – I get to meet some really, really interesting folk. People from all over the world who share a zest for life, a passion for creativity and more often than not, a love of technology too.
Parking the latter of the three for a moment, let me tell you about something cool that’s been on my radar
recently.
Y’see a while back a good friend of mine pointed me in the direction of a website called ‘Someone Once Told Me‘. Along with a note along the lines of “Dude, you have to get involved with this!”
The gem of a human being behind this site is a man named Mario Cacciottolo who, as well as being an all round lovely chap, is an excellent photogrpaher. His idea for the site is simple:
…an attempt to gather and chronicle some of the things that people have heard in their lives, the messages and expressions that have stuck in people’s head, for reasons both obvious and odd.
What SOTM actually means is that people are asked, sometimes by appointment and sometimes randomly, to hold up a large piece of paper, upon which they write something that someone once told them. Or emailed. Or texted. Basically something that’s been communicated to them. But told, preferably.
A black and white photograph is then taken of them, and one new picture goes on the site every day…
You with me yet?
Got it?
No?
Well how about I show you the one that Mario took of me at the London Social Media Cafe recently?
– Yes, fairies do live at the bottom of my Mum’s garden –
Lovely huh?
The idea – not the picture of me… well, that ain’t bad either 😉
All of the photos are different in each way and every time Mario posts ones up he accompanies it with a small story detailing the context of the SOTM.
I’ve lost a good couple of hours going back through that site and there really is so much stuff in there, it’s quite astounding. The site itself, is now over a year old with a back catalogue of nearly 400 photographs that cross Continents, Languages and Religions. Happy, Sad, Sexy and Fun – SOTM really is an amazing project.
As I mentioned at the top of this post, I was pointed towards this site ages ago but only met Mario in person very recently at London’s Social Media Cafe, aka The Tuttle Club. It was the last event to be held at the Coach & Horses on Greek St and there was a real buzz in the air and everyone was smiling.
Mario chose a good day to visit! 🙂
One of the best things about the project is that it’s not exclusive to Mario to taking your photo. Literally, ANYONE can get involved, there is a page on the website that explains how you can send in your own SOTM images and mark your place on the site for all eternity.
I’m yet to properly sit down and talk to Mario about the future hopes for SOTM, but I know he’s recently started collecting audio clips from his participants to further enrich the pages of the site. One hopes that all of this creative output will one day lead to an exhibition of some sort and, having just spent the best part of two hours putting this post together (I got lost in the site – AGAIN), you can count that I’ll be first in line for a ticket when if and when it opens.
So come on, what did someone once tell you?
Every Friday there is a little thing that happens in London, just round the corner from Soho (here we go again), above The Coach & Horses Pub on Greek Street
On the flip side however I really missed the hustle and bustle of my friends at the Coach & Horses.