The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is an environment of constant activity, online and offline. Photo sharing networks like Instagram provide an insight into places of interest and interaction. Through these photos, the GGNRA is redefined and understood through the unique lenses of park visitors. Share Your Story looks to place these images, or stories, into the forefront, rethinking the public identity of the parks as a community-initiated space and allow visitors to become content producers for the parks. Share Your Story explores the interface between the park visitors and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy (GGNPC) as a platform for communication, via mobile application. When the vivacious activity that occurs online can be visualized, it produces new ways of seeing, interpreting, and sharing the GGNRA.

With the use of digital media, images become the tool for telling stories. Whether it’s a selfie during a sunset run, a reunion with old high school friends, revisiting an Andy Goldsworthy piece that’s influenced a professional career, exploring historic monuments that reveal a personal cultural identity, or an impromptu engagement photoshoot, images give insight into the lenses of park visitors. Through this practice, park visitors are empowered to become translators of the GGNRA landscape as well as the faces of the park. The following proposals are different methods of which these images can be shared and opportunities for the GGNPC to utilize a mobile app as a platform for communication with park visitors.