New England Libraries

CLOCK PHOTO/JACK ROBERTS

Janina Misiewicz is a junior English major with a minor in photography who has started a fundraising campaign in order to raise enough money to delve into her newest photography project, New England Libraries. Misiewicz is using her passion for photography to capture the essence of how libraries are today. She wishes to preserve their image before they change with the world.

The end goal for this project is for Misiewicz to create a photobook that will work to keep the image of these libraries alive. More specifically, she will be focusing on “preserving the beauty and culture of small town libraries in New England,” said Misiewicz.  If properly funded, she will be traveling throughout the six New England states over the next year and locating unique and charming libraries in each state. She will post pictures along with articles on her blog dedicated to this project at newenglandlibraries.com.

Misiewicz is going to use a traditional 4x5 large format film camera because “it produces better quality images than any other format in photography, it is the only camera that can reduce linear perspective distortion on site, and because the Historic American Building Survey (HABS) and the Historic American Engineering Record (HAER) require historical documentation to be made in polyester-based archivally-processed sheet film,” said Misiewicz.

Misiewicz has turned to the internet for help fundraising this project. She is using the crowdfunding website Kickstarter.com to meet her goal of $10,000. Kickstarter works by saying that if the artist cannot raise all of their funds in a set number of days, all of the pledges made will be canceled and the artist will receive no funds. For Misiewicz, that means she needs to raise all $10,000 dollars before April 30, 2015. Without this monetary aid, she will not have the resources to make New England Libraries a reality.

Kickstarter appealed to her because it gives her “the ability to spread my idea quickly and efficiently to a lot of people—keeping people updated on the status of my project is invaluable,” said Misiewicz. This may be her first time using online sources for fundraising, however this is not her first rodeo when it comes to funding a project. In 2012, she worked on a project highlighting the dining staff at Bard College. This improved their work environment by increasing the amount of respect and appreciation the staff received. For this particular project, Misiewicz was able to successfully fund, produce, and exhibit her photography project.

Misiewicz plans on making a career out of her passion for photography. Her skillset has already shown through as she is already an award-winning photographer with roots in Meredith, New Hampshire. Misiewicz believes her upcoming project will be a huge stepping stone for her future in this field.

Anyone interested in learning more about this project can visit Kickstarter.com after April 1, 2015 or Misiewicz’s blog.