What do you know.
Many moons ago there was a photographer, Patrick Litchfield. He was the official photographer for the Royal Family so Americans will have no clue as to who he is. But he was the man and the only thing we had in the north of England in a time before the internet. He had his own TV series and each week he would announce a photographic challenge. Week one was to go out and make photographs within one mile of your home. He called it shooting what you know. I held onto this method so much so that I returned to my hometown some years later to shoot The Flowery Room project as part of my Masters.
Despite this mantra, as a photographer, like many others, the temptation is always to venture out and fine new things, rather than following in the footsteps of Proust;
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new lands but seeing with new eyes.”
Absorbing oneself into a place is sometimes the only way to produce the best work. Its the difference between living somewhere or just passing through. But fundamentally, It all goes back to shooting what you know..