4.23.2009

This is AMAZING



So this guy got a Polaroid camera in 1979 and from that date until his death in 1997 he took one picture a day with it. Then so his efforts wouldn't be in vain, two of his friends digitized all of them and posted them online.

I like to thank my friend ruth for this link.

There is so much you can say about these photographs - how some are great photos and some are just fun snapshots. Some are very personal and some I can relate. One of the friends in the 1979 series looks like my friend Chuckles. (click the hyperlinks to compare) Also i love the instant film format. The unedited rawness.

I have been basically doing this with my D300 when I first bought it. I think I'll starting doing this myself, while also including my normal posts of whatever I have been posting about. This is also similar to my friends (Vanessa, Lauren and Pang) recent commitment of taking a self portrait everyday for one year. Peep them out as well.

7 comments:

  1. I thought about doing a photo a day too, but not self portraits. Melissa brought up a good point, though... it would have to have a bit more focus. Just a photo a day if abstract and probably wouldn't push someone to be very creative.

    I just need something to propel me into actually using my camera more. :/ I think that you, however, would come up with some amazing stuff. :)

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  2. These are way cool. I think that guy looks more like Andrew Ford, but maybe that's just me.

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  3. steph - i dont think this guy really trying to put together a large body work of art. these photos were found and scanned after his death. This became a kind of accidental documentary of his life for the last 22 years of his life.

    franny - i can see that. maybe he's andrew and chuckles' dad.

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  4. I agree with Martin that he wasn't trying to put together a work of art, but taking a picture a day was intentional and I read somewhere that his friends put this together at his request.

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  5. I was referring mostly to the project Vanessa, Lauren, and Pang are doing. The 365 has been going around Flickr for a long time, and it seems the more it progresses, the more creative people seem to get with it. It's a good way to motivate someone to learn more about their camera/photography. A self-teaching tool, if you will.

    I actually didn't look at that guys stuff, the website was blocked at work. I'm looking at it now. It's pretty amazing. Photos are sometimes a lot more telling than a journal ever could be.

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  6. this project is amazing. thanks for linking to this Martin! i found myself looking up pictures he took on the day that i was born and on other people's birthdays as well. i think the last picture is really haunting and sad at the same time. i wonder if he would still be taking pictures (or what kind of format of pictures) today if he was still alive, with film for Polaroid expensive these days.

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  7. yea - i checked out my bday photo. its soooo crazy that i can find a photograph taken on the day i was born.

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