“If I ever go looking for my heart’s desire again, I won’t look any further than my own backyard.” Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz
While I can’t condone, never moving beyond your backyard, I can recognize the value therein. Thank you Haverhill, Massachusetts, your fabulous geographic diversity has been my photography muse for five years, now, the source for my The Heartbeat of Haverhill Blog and The Heartbeat of Haverhill Facebook Page, and a resource to draw from for myriad marketing opportunities, contest entries, and calendar pages.
I typically spend less time photographing the urban areas of Haverhill because the urban areas within the City represent such a small percentage of it’s total land that includes vast expanses of suburban, rural, agricultural, park, waterfront and open spaces, but as the City brings new vitality downtown, this area becomes more and more of a focal point.
In my career as a freelance marketer, we just put to print a 12-page pitchbook for Haverhill’s Planning and Economic Development department. The project was co-funded by the City and the Greater Haverhill Foundation. I was contracted to lead the project, of course. because of my marketing acumen but that was enhanced because of my photographic library. Ultimately over 20 of my photos (city, land, river, and business scapes, even my portrait of Mayor James Fiorentini were placed in the book. Billboards and other marketing materials to come! It’s too soon yet but I will provide a link to the digital version as soon as I get the “okay” after the book is presented to City Council.
A new gorgeous waterfront apartment building just contacted me for another photo or two and my random “just walking through the City” photo of perhaps the prettiest commercial street in downtown Haverhill was selected for the cover of the Greater Haverhill Chamber of Commerce Directory.
Haverhill has been very good to me, and I like to return the favor by promoting just what an amazing 35+ square mile city Haverhill is. I mean where else do you have a winery (won a regional contest with a photo from there, a castle (took first place in a regional photo contest with a photo there), a residents’ beach, a river (photo of the urban end of the river took first), and a ski/board family oriented resort. I read a statistic long enough ago that I can’t remember where that said Haverhill had more photographers per capita than most Massachusetts communities. Once I started cataloguing the City’s unique features, it was easy to understand why.
(c)Alison Colby-Campbell
alison colby-campbell photography 