LYNN — A local photographer is using his skills to build a community that looks at Lynn through a different lens.
Isaac Davila, the creator of the Lynn Shutter Society Facebook page, moved to Lynn more than two decades ago. The idea behind this community-driven page, which allows members to post and view photographs from around the city, developed more than two years ago.
“I wanted to show the good side of Lynn, because people always burn the city and are scared by it because of its bad reputation of being a ‘sin city,’ but I just don’t see it that way,” said Davila. “I want to show people the good light in Lynn because there is so much here and the scenery always changes, you just can’t beat it.”
Davila, who was born in Arecibo, Puerto Rico, is a family man with a wife, two children of his own and three stepchildren, who for the most part, are his biggest muse. Besides running the Lynn Shutter Society, the local photographer takes professional portraits on the weekends for clients and works shifts at General Electric as a bench hand, which he has done for the past 11 years.
“My favorite photos are usually of my kids, like when they were born, I started with the little Kodak cameras,” he said. “I used to draw a lot as a kid and as time went on, I started playing around with Photoshop, which I learned before I started editing photos. So I didn’t start being seriously into photography until I got this camera almost seven years ago.”
Davila has always shown interest in the city’s culture and has become a member of numerous Lynn-based Facebook groups over the years. As page moderators began to stop regulating posts and comments, Davila noticed how quickly opinions and comments turned into out-of-control arguments between members.
“One thing I did notice though is when members would post old pictures of Lynn, people would stop fighting on one thread to see this one and it was great to see how the pictures brought these people together,” he said. “So, when I started posting my own photos I noticed that something that was so insignificant to me meant so much to someone else, and they’d share their stories and histories behind where my picture was taken.”
Last year, he brought in Isaac Daniel, whom he met at a local gallery event, to help moderate the page and ensure that no politics or negativity would be brought in by any members. The guidelines of the page, which has more than 2,000 members, have created a safe haven for old and new photographers to share their work.
“I see a lot of posts of new members talking about how they left the camera a long time ago and just because of this page it gets them motivated to come out again, and that makes me feel really good,” said Davila.
Davila, whose greatest inspiration is famous American artist Bob Ross, adores using the landscapes of Lynn as backdrops for his professional portraits. With celebrations such as weddings, graduations, and birthdays, the local photographer has an endless amount of beautiful scenic backgrounds to choose from.
“I had a client who was taking a portrait for her quinceanera with a blue ball gown and I took her pictures in front of High Rock Tower, which made it look like she was in front of a castle and they came out amazing,” he said.
As a man with many ventures and jobs, Davila says it can become hard to invest all of his time into the page, but he does whatever he can to make it work. Members have begun to post daily about the possibility of their page leader starting up group photography classes to help them learn the shutter basics. Once his schedule starts to clear up, Davila hopes to hold a variety of small classes and member meet-ups.
“Lynn has such an interesting history, and I don’t know it all, but I always get inspired by it and end up losing myself in the scenery,” he said.