If you have not seen Anne Patterson’s new Hello Ottawa project, then you should. This brand new blog has been up and running since September, and has already featured several intriguing in-depth interviews of Ottawa residents who have volunteered to share their stories and have their photograph taken. These very personal profiles provide insight into the lives of everyday citizens, and offer us all an opportunity to reflect on the place we call home. Hello Ottawa is also appealing due to Anne’s amazing photography.
An anthropologist and geographer by training, Anne currently works as a new media consultant and online community facilitator with an international development organization dedicated to minimizing the digital divide between the world’s richest and poorest nations. She’s also visual anthropology editor at Popular Anthropology Magazine. Originally from Canmore, Alberta, Anne spent a number of years “shuffling around Ontario” following various contracts and jobs, and only recently stopped to settle in Ottawa after her fella found a permanent gig.
Photo courtesy of Anne Patterson, the creative force behind Hello Ottawa.
Sitting down together for coffee on a very sunny Saturday morning, she and I had plenty of common ground to discuss.
Fascinated by the way people experience place, Anne was inspired to create Hello Ottawa after encountering the work of Julie Michelle and the i live here: SF project. Having lived in Canada’s capital years ago, Anne admits that early on, she was ambiguous about living in a city with such a staid reputation. In the end though, she chose very consciously to make her home here. So, Anne conceived of the Hello Ottawa project as a means to strengthen her own connection to the city, explore the intersection of culture and community in a (relatively) new place, and meet some of Ottawa’s most interesting people.
Her process is simple, but quite time consuming, a reflection of her sensitivity and commitment. After initial contact with participants is made, Anne arranges an interview in a place where they are comfortable. In person, she begins with a single question and lets the conversation flow naturally from there – recording on her IPhone as she goes. Each subsequent question Anne asks builds on the previous response, and she makes every effort to allow participants to finish speaking before she asks another question. Once the interview is done, a second session for photographs is scheduled, again in a location of her subject’s choosing. Anne then transcribes her interviews to text, combines her photographs, and gives participants full editorial control over their profile before it is posted. Her approach is both thoughtful and respectful, and the resulting profiles are genuinely enlightening.
While she admits that the project rolled around in her head as an idea for quite awhile, Anne finally “forced herself” to get started by putting ads on Craigslist and Kijiji seeking volunteers to participate. Encouraged by the response she received; Anne built the site and set up her first interview. As it turns out, exploring her fellow citizen’s understanding of place is the perfect sideline pursuit. “I knew I wanted to do something that involved photography. Plus,” she stated unequivocally, “for me, creativity happens on the Internet”. Since launching Hello Ottawa, Anne is pretty darn pleased at how closely her real life has begun to resemble her ‘ideal’ one, and she is feeling very much at home.
Do you have a favourite place in Ottawa? I still think of myself as pretty new to the city, so I’m not sure that I have a favourite yet. I love Hintonburg and Wellington West because those are the places that made me feel at home almost as soon as I decided to live here. My neighbourhood was astonishingly friendly right from the start, and it made it so much easier for me to commit to Ottawa.
What are the most important characteristics of “home” to you? Feeling comfortable is number one, of course. I’ve moved around enough that I find it fairly easy to feel at home wherever I am, but a good sense of community goes a long way.
Where is the best place in Ottawa to people watch? The bus! Taking the bus is one of my favourite parts of the day. I love popping in my headphones and observing people.
If you were offering advice to someone new to Ottawa, what would it be? Throw yourself into it, I guess! When I lived in Ottawa in 2003, I feel like I spent a lot of time sort of waiting for the city to grab me, to make me like it. It didn’t happen because I wasn’t putting much effort into it. Now that I’m back, I can see the potential here and I finally feel engaged because I’ve been putting myself out there. If there’s one thing that doing Hello Ottawa has taught me it’s that whatever it is you love doing, there are other people here who love it too. You just might have to put a little more energy into finding them than you would elsewhere.
What are your favourite Ottawa area shops? Restaurants? Activities?
Shops: For clothes, jewellery, etc., I really love Victoire. There’s another place nearby, Flock, that’s very new but I’ve already spent way too much money there. They both carry really great Canadian designers. I try to do all my book shopping at Collected Works – they’re really great about placing special orders for anything they don’t stock, and the staff is so nice.
Restaurants: Olga’s on Bank Street is a favourite – they make the best soups. I seem to go to Agave a fair bit, and I recently had a celebration dinner at the Black Cat Bistro that was amazing. We’re also big fans of Hintonburger in my house.
Activities: I’m a music fan, so I like to go to shows. I really like Raw Sugar Cafe for that. I’m just getting into running, so I guess I spend a lot of time along the Parkway and Canal. I’m really looking forward to snowshoeing and skiing in Gatineau this winter.
If you weren’t here to stay, where would you live next? It would be a really hard decision! All of my family is in Calgary, so that would be the reasonable choice. But I’ve always been fascinated by Montreal, and I love Victoria. Honestly, though, if I found out tomorrow that I had to pick up and move to any other city in the world, I would probably choose Buenos Aires. I spent some time there last year and it really grabbed me, to the point that I’m feeling a little obsessed with returning.
