Citizens at the Polls, Cameras in Hand
The Polling Place Photo Project was a nationwide experiment in citizen journalism that encouraged voters to capture, post and share photographs of primaries, caucuses and general elections. By documenting local voting experiences, participants contributed to an archive of photographs that capture the richness and complexity of voting in America.
Initiated by Winterhouse in partnership with AIGA, the project first sought to engage voters during the highly politicized 2006 midterm elections. In 2008, the project was supported by The New York Times and promoted as a part of their online election coverage. The archive now includes almost 6,000 photographs, representing all 50 states as well as Americans voting abroad.
Random Photo Sets
 Wall.jpg Brooklyn, New York |
 Leanna Community Center Murfreesboro, Tennessee |
 Polling Place Palisades, New York |
 Pine Knoll Polling Place Sacramento, California |
 Town of Root Canajoharie, New York |
 East Berkeley Street, Boston Boston, Massachusetts |
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About the Project
The Polling Place Photo Project is a program of AIGA, the professional association for design, and Winterhouse Institute. William Drenttel of Design Observer initiated the project in 2006. Thirdwave is AIGA's development partner and responsible for supporting the technology of the Polling Place Photo Project. The About page details the many participants who have contributed to this project.
In the spirit of public access and broad dissemination, this was an open-source project. All photographs are contributed under an "Attribution No Derivatives" Creative Commons license. It is understood that all photographs may be shared with other sites, including designobserver.com, pollingplacephotoproject.org, aiga.org, and designfordemocracy.org. Further, photographs may be distributed to other sites, commercial and non-commercial, which share the goal of encouraging voter participation in America. Photographs may be used by any news media, including online blogs, that credit the project and the photographer under the terms of the Creative Commons license. Photographs will not be sold individually for personal profit by any participant. It is our goal that these photographs be used, researched and broadly disseminated, and all contributors willingly (and cheerfully) acknowledge that their photographs are a part of this public initiative.