The Degree Confluence Project

Photographic sampling of the world? Or simply an obsessed search for locations whose significance is only numerical in nature? Or maybe just a good excuse to get out there and follow the GPS?

What would drive you to the wilderness, camera in hand, seeking an arbitrary spot on the map grid?

From the website:

"The goal of the Degree Confluence Project is to visit each of the latitude and longitude integer degree intersections in the world, and to take pictures at each location. The project is an organized sampling of the world. There is a confluence within 49 miles (79 km) of you if you're on the surface of Earth."

Surely an interesting project, raising a number of questions:

1. Are we missing the blank spots on the map? Have we ran out of challenges for our instict of exploration? Are we just coming up with challenges to provide the reason for seeking?

2. Or is this the result of the new possibilities for cooperative projects spanning the world? A few years ago, an idea like this would never leave the premises of casual conversation. Now it is actually possible to set up, go, and do this sort of thing.

In seeing this website, I immediately thought that this is quite relevant to travel photography. On second thought, I wonder "is it really?"

(Degree Confluence Project Website)