Though best known locally as the reporter for Sippican Week, Georgia Sparling has had a varied career. After college she moved to Shanghai, working with nonprofits, freelance writing and learning Mandarin.

While there she developed an interest in film and digital photography. This month, she is displaying some of her photographs at the Mattapoisett Library in a show titled “Town and Country” that highlights her time in China, the tri-town and the West Coast.

Why is the theme of your show “Town and Country”?
I’m calling it Town and Country because it’s a mixture of photos from my time living in China. One or two are from traveling on the West Coast and the rest are local.

What is “Town and Country” about?
I picked a mixture of photos that I thought were representative of the places I’ve lived and how vastly different they are from each other.

What kind of work did you do while you were in Shanghai?
I worked with a nonprofit as a communications manager. I worked with college students as well as freelance writing for several English language publications. I lived there for six years and got more into photography while I was living there.

For you what’s the most striking difference between the locations?

There’s hardly any way that Shanghai is similar to Mattapoisett (laughs). I can’t think of anything. To me it’s almost a violent transition between the two.

I was always with my camera finding very surprising things in China and here it’s harder to find something unexpected.

My picture of Gerry Morris is the closest I’ve come, so far. He was out in his field in Rochester and I just happened to see him with his bucket and his pipe. I slammed on my brakes and thought, ‘I have to grab a picture of this guy.’

Is there a photograph you regret not getting?

Yes. When I was in Shanghai I was walking to the bus stop one day and there was this guy with a cart full of stringed instruments. People were completely swarming his cart. I ran back into my apartment to get my camera. I was so angry when I got back and the guy was gone. That would have been an amazing China picture – the randomness in the every day life and the unusual things that are just outside your door.

You said you became interested in photography when you went to China. Is this a hobby you always had?

When I was younger I had a regular a film single lens reflex camera so I took pictures for a while, not so much in college. After living in China for a few year,s a couple of friends had gotten digital single lens reflexive cameras. All I had was a little point and shoot. I wanted to remember my time there and to have those pictures of that fleeting life because everything is changing so fast in that city. I wanted to remember it as it was when I was there.

So you don’t have a technical background. You just learned on your own?

Yeah, I just picked it up. Read the manual. Always read the manual even though people don’t like to hear that! I just have a decent enough eye, I guess. I don’t study much photography.

Are any of the photos in the exhibit for sale?

Yeah, sure, please buy them (laughs). Support your local artists!

Do you have a preference? Film or digital?

I might prefer film because you don’t know what you're getting until its developed. The photo of the antique seller that is in the display, I had no idea if that one came out or not because it was in a dark area, and I wasn’t sure if I had enough light to get that picture. But then when it came out the colors were really rich. With film, there’s something more unexpected. You can't script it as much. You can take 500 pictures that are of the exact same thing on your digital...but you just get what you get with the film.