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A photographer who spent years capturing photos of the small towns and remote destinations using Google Street View shares her tips for virtual travel during the coronavirus pandemichttps://www.businessinsider.in/thelife/news/a-photographer-who-spent-years-capturing-photos-of-the-small-towns-and-remote-destinations-using-google-street-view-shares-her-tips-for-virtual-travel-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic/slidelist/75947892.cms2020-05-24T20:06:23+05:30

A photographer who spent years capturing photos of the small towns and remote destinations using Google Street View shares her tips for virtual travel during the coronavirus pandemic

Melissa WileyMay 24, 2020, 20:06 IST

Ten years ago, photographer Jacqui Kenny was diagnosed with agoraphobia. Her condition makes traveling long distances on planes, trains, and buses difficult.

Kenny, now in her 40s, has lived with agoraphobia since her early 20s. In the years following her diagnosis, she said she found her world shrinking.

"I didn't really want to go out that much," she told Business Insider. "I found myself in the situation where I needed to find some way to stay connected with the world."

One day in 2016, she sat down at her computer in London and opened up Google Street View. That's when her world changed.

"I felt like I had so much more control in this world than I did in the real world at that point," she told Business Insider. "I could parachute into these countries with no fear of panic attacks, no fear of anxiety, no flying."

For the next two-and-half to three years, she became a full-time visual traveler. Kenny would open up Street View daily to travel to far-flung corners of the earth, sometimes for as many as 18 hours at a time.

When Jacqui found an image she liked, she took a screenshot and began posting her "Street View portraits" on Instagram under the name the Agoraphobic Traveler.

Jacqui estimates that she's traveled to almost every country mapped on Google Street View and taken 40,000 images.

Today, Kenny isn't on Street View as often as she used to be. "I got to a point where I felt I got all that I needed from the project," she told Business Insider.

Instead, she's working on a book of her work scheduled to launch early next year and has been combing through her archive of images.

Rediscovering old images has been an opportunity for Kenny to contemplate what the project meant to her.

"So many of the images I took were a reflection of what I was going through at the time," she said. "They feel quite isolated, but the colors are hopeful."

When Kenny first started traveling on Street View, everything was new and exciting, from a dog chasing to a cat to kids playing football.

Over time, she found that she was drawn to visual symbols of resilience like remote desert towns, cacti, and palm trees.

Mongolia, Senegal, Peru, Chile, Arizona, and New Mexico are among her favorite places to visit, with Mongolia topping the list.

Kenny discovered Mongolia early on her project and was drawn to how different it was from her life in London. She loves its mix of traditional and modern architecture, rolling landscapes, herds of wild horses, and light.

Over the course of her project, Kenny also realized she didn't have to travel to far-flung places to be happy and learned to appreciate her neighborhood in London more. "It was a great time to actually look around at what's close to me," she said.

Kenny used to recommend places to visit on Street View, but now encourages people to just pick a place and dive in, since everyone notices and appreciates different details.

She recommends the website mapcrunch.com, which drops users in random locations on Street View.

Kenny also stressed the importance of connecting with others during the pandemic.

"What we're going through at the moment is different from my experience with agoraphobia, but there are still similarities like the frustration of not connecting with the world in a way that you want," she said.

Kenny's followers on Instagram have helped her feel that connection, recommending places around the world for her to virtually visit and sharing their own experiences with agoraphobia and mental health. "It makes me not feel that I'm so alone with it," she said.

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