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Janis Antonek started the Greensboro Daily Photo blog in 2008—a place to share photos she captured in the community, often with little stories to accompany them. Since then, the website has grown to more than 6,000 posts and established a strong following. It was recently recognized by the Greensboro City Council, who praised the “dedicated and long-standing efforts of Greensboro Daily Photo to showcase the City of Greensboro, NC to the world.”
This week, we caught up with Antonek to talk about how and why she came to create Greensboro Daily Photo, how she chooses her subject matter, and the shifts in the local media landscape.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Tell me how Greensboro Daily Photo started.
Well, in 2008, I was looking for a way to be involved in the growing internet world. I always loved photography, and my husband, who I call Mr. Greensboro Daily, found the daily photo community online. There was this guy named Eric Tenin who published a daily photo of Paris. It grew into this huge community. He inspired a lot of us. And then I thought, if there can be a Moscow Daily Photo, a Paris Daily Photo, then there can be a Greensboro Daily Photo.
So it started as a way to connect, and I’ve been at it ever since. This is year 17; we’ve got over 6,000 posts.
How do you find your subject matter? Posting every day is a lot!
Yes! My husband likes to say, ‘Every day comes around pretty often,’ but to my knowledge, I haven’t missed a day. But this is a volunteer effort, and I’m still working full time, so some posts are a lot more researched and organized, and some are just fluff posts like, ‘Oh look, there was a toad in my backyard.’
I rely a lot on serendipity. I say that serendipity is my best friend. I’ll drive by and say, ‘Oh, this is happening.’ So I’ll just be driving by and pull off and go photograph that.
In the summers, when I have more time, I try to do some interviews. One of the goals of mine is to interview more people in the business community. That can be really hard, but I’ve had some good interviews like Skip Alston and Keith Holliday, the former mayor of Greensboro. But you have to plan ahead, have to get on their calendar. That takes so much preplanning, and that’s hard.
How has the blog changed over the last 17 years?
I don’t remember the first posts very well. But these days, everyone says how extroverted I am. But I was very hesitant in the first few years to do people photos or going up to interview people.
Also, in the beginning, I was using Nikons. Now, I mostly do cell phone photography.
Doing the blog has made me go up to more people and interview people more. It’s made me closer to the community. That was the initial reason for it, was that I didn’t know the community very well. Now, I’m very connected to Greensboro.
What’s been some of your favorite posts?
I’ve had the chance to meet a lot of fun people. The people interviews are really the most special. They’re the hardest to do, but they’re what connects me to the city. I’ve gotten to meet Jim Schlosser, a former journalist with the News & Record. One time, I got to take a photo of Mr. Schiffman, the father of the man who runs the jewelry store now. He’s now deceased. I’ve taken a photo of Lee Kinard, who ran the morning show on WFMY; he’s now deceased.
I think one of my anticipated joys of this project is seeing the people who were alive then but not now, and show the things in the community that were there then but not here now.
I’ve also gotten a lot of feedback from the blog.
One time, a woman contacted me and said that she and her husband moved to Arizona to be with their son because her husband has Alzheimer’s. And every day, she would print out the Greensboro Daily Photo and show her husband, and it was the one sign that he remembered something.
So sometimes, I think, “Why am I even doing this? Are people even looking?” But then, it’s like they’re not just looking, but they’re counting on it.
You’ve talked about feeling like an “imposter journalist.” What do you mean by that?
Well, in the beginning, I was too shy to talk to people. That’s why I felt like an imposter journalist. Because 17 years ago, careers were more clearly defined. Now everyone is a journalist. If I had to describe myself, I would call myself an urban street photographer or a photo journalist, or a photo blogger.
What’s next for Greensboro Daily Photo?
Well, the website I use, Typepad, is probably not long for this world, so I have to find some way to switch platforms. I would also like to find some way to archive it all.
I didn’t start out going into this for the long haul. The whole aspect of community building, initially I did it for me. But now I feel like I’m community building for the community. I feel like that’s very special.
Sayaka Matsuoka is a Greensboro-based reporter for The Assembly. She was formerly the managing editor for Triad City Beat.
More by this author.