As an investigator for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Brian McWilliams gets paid to notice things. But the Back Bay resident and IG Boston (@igboston) founder, 57, took his eye for detail one step further and has documented his brownstone-lined commute to?Beacon Hill on Instagram (@brianmcw) since 2013. McWilliams’s account, filled with historic facades and cobblestone streets, gives followers a glimpse of some of the city’s best-known neighborhoods.
Q. What made you decide to capture your daily commute?
A. I walk from Back Bay up to Beacon Hill every day and back. At a certain point, as I was walking, I realized, this is such a beautiful area and I’ve got this cellphone in my pocket. Why don’t I take a few pictures while I’m walking through?
Q. After walking the route so frequently, have your perceptions of the neighborhoods shifted at all?
A. I pay attention as I’m walking. I feel as if I’m a neighbor to all of these places that I walk by, and I’m just sort of passing through. I see workmen doing stuff; I see people tending their gardens; I see people walking through. I’m just a nosy neighbor, in one respect.
Q. Have you come to know and interact with people en route, such as homeowners or fellow commuters?
A. There used to be a famous golden retriever who lived on Acorn Street in Beacon Hill. That dog was getting old and passed away a while back. I just happened to be walking through Acorn Street a couple months later and encountered the late dog’s owner and struck up a conversation with him. Turned out he had gotten a new golden retriever, and I got to meet the new puppy when she was really just out on the street for the first time.
Q. You recently shared photographs of your trip to Europe. How did that experience differ from photographing familiar Boston streets?
A. Photographers perceive things in a way that people don’t have time to do when they’re just walking to work and are in a hurry. They’re not looking at the world with that same kind of scrutiny. When you’re a tourist, that’s what you do. You’re looking at things, and your head is swiveling the whole time. Everything is new.
Q. What made you expand beyond your own account and create IG Boston?
A. I thought it’d be good to have a hub that celebrated good photography per se, not necessarily photography that includes the Boston landmarks. The photos don’t have to have the Zakim Bridge in them, or the Back Bay skyline. They can just be an image that’s beautiful.
Interview was condensed and edited. Sonia Rao can be reached at sonia.rao@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @misssoniarao.
