Meet Your Neighbours, what does this mean?
Humm, catchy little slogan but what does it really mean? As we go about our daily lives, even for those of us that spend a good part of it trekking about in the wilds, we forget about those little creatures, plants, and trees that are just as common as that dandelion that grows in our lawns. We are in awe of those scarce and hard to find species but the “ordinary” are often overlooked. This is where Meet Your Neighbours shines!
Meet Your Neighbours celebrates the common species, determined and highlighted by the location of the MYN photographer. All of these common species are vital to people and our everyday lives. For some people, these common species are the first and often the only contact with wild nature they may have. That being said, these ordinary species are most often overlooked and undervalued.
Meet Your Neighbours is a global-scale photographic project. The concept is to encourage people of all ages to engage and appreciate the common species and natural environments within their own communities. Through stunning imagery and a very unique presentation, the viewer will gain a new understanding of just how special their own ordinary “backyard” species are and be encouraged to take the necessary steps to ensure their continued survival. The goal of all MYN photographers is to nurture a compassion for even the most humble members of the natural world. Meet Your Neighbours is a proactive conservation effort aiming to remind the public that, with care and consideration, today’s common species won’t become the rarities of tomorrow.
Meet Your Neighbours dignifies these common species by giving them “celebrity” treatment. Each subject is shot in the wild against a pure white background and back-lit to highlight its translucent qualities. The result of the field-studio approach is an exceptionally detailed, stunningly gorgeous series of portraits of common species like never seen them before! The images show maximum detailitself often a source of fascination. Because all images are created on-location, the need to harvest plants or transfer animals out of their natural environments is effectively eliminated.
The Campaign will use the images in a variety of ways to support the Meet Your Neighbours project. These include: next generation e-Books with streaming video and sound, a children’s book series with enhanced digital companion guides, a high quality coffee table style book and an amazing “onwhite” image catalog from partnering photographers from around the globe. Photos from the project will also be displayed in several traditional and non-traditional exhibits, including projected showings in public areas.
As a Meet Your Neighbours photographer, I will be working together with my sponsors to help educate my community, through a positive environmental education and awareness program, as to the importance of our common “backyard” species, and why it is so important to rewild our “human neighbors”, young and old.
I invite you to follow along and witness the beauty of the “ordinary” though the progression of my MYN portraits. I will soon have an online gallery displaying my collection of species so please stay tuned!
For more information about Meet Your Neighbours visit their website at www.meetyourneighbours.org
Jerry Greer
SocialVibe