Click here to see the Year In 60 Seconds movie
Click here to see the Year In 60 Seconds movie |
There's a scene in the movie, Smoke, where Harvey Keitel's character recounts the story of a man who took a single photograph from the same street corner every day for years. I remember watching that movie on December 15, 1995, when I was living and studying in France; to take a picture everyday of the same scene reminded me of writing in my journal. One had to be very consistent to take on such an undertaking; it's rather like brushing teeth -- after awhile, it becomes habit. I didn't know it then, but the seeds for a photographic investigation of my own were planted that day when I saw Smoke with my friends, Liliana and Garry.
 April 15, 2000 (goatee simulated with the remnants of my hair) |
After I bought my first camera, the Agfa ePhoto 1680, in October, 1998, I started to take pictures everywhere I went. I felt the urge to capture the events in my life more so than I have ever done before in my life. While I was writing in my journal, I was finding it difficult to remember the sights and sounds of the events that I was documenting. With my camera, I finally had the means to do so. It was around that time that the thought of taking a picture of myself every day came into my head. The seed that Smoke planted bloomed on January 1, 1999, when I began my personal photographic journey. At the time of this writing, it's been nearly two and half years since I've started, and I have amassed quite the collection of photographs.
I do this because, again, I feel the urge to document life. When I look back on my Journal, I can bring up the image that I took on that day to immediately remember how I was dressed, what I looked like, whether or not I had a zit on my face or not, who I was with, and a host of other information. Like journal writing, I've found this task to be highly rewarding, even if it requires me to be consistent.
 December 23, 2000 |
Unlike in Smoke, I am not positioned in exactly the same position for every shot -- that's an idea to perhaps explore at a later date What I have done, however, is take pictures of myself in my day to day life, be it at work, at home, or while travelling. While I was compiling the list of pictures, I came across a shocking, though obvious, realization. Every day is treated with no less and no more priority than any other day. And yet, our memories of memorable events makes certain days stick out much more than those typical, "nothing much happened" days. My Ultimate Dislocation took up one picture out of the 350 listed, but its effects last through the end of this gallery. My trip to France was highly memorable, but in this reel of daily photos, it has no visible greater importance than the days I just stayed at home. One day, one picture, all treated equally except when our memories take control.
This proves the point that we should endeavor to make every day a special day, a memorable day. I am known for using the quote, "Tomorrow begins today," and it's never been as relevant when I look at these pictures.
The pictures in this gallery represent photos taken from April 13, 2000 to April 14, 2001. Originally, I was going to create this gallery based on the calendar year, but I realized that the calendar year is a construct created by man, something I didn't necessarily have to follow. I decided the starting date of April 13, 2000 because that was the evening in which I shaved my head for the last time. Astute readers of my hair musing will notice that I have gone through the gamut of hairstyles, from short to long to none at all, over the years. Since April 13, I've been growing my hair out in order to get long hair, and I've cut it only once since, right before I left for France at the end of 2000. It's been over one year and my hair is finally long and able to be put into a ponytail! Thus, in addition to catching a glimpse into the past year of my life, you get the bonus of seeing my hair grow! Call me "Chia-Adam", it just takes water! And, oh yeah, a lot of time!
 April 4, 2001 |
The photomosaic on the upper-right is a visually representation of the entire year. To see the year happen right before your eyes, in 60 seconds, I created a Quicktime movie (3.8 MB). It runs through all of the images that I have amassed over the past year in about sixty seconds. I was going to call the movie Gone in 60 Seconds, but, unfortunately, Nicholas Cage and Angelina Jolie beat me to the punch with that movie title. So, I'll call it A Year In 60 Seconds.
From April 13, 2000 to April 14, 2001, there are a possibility of 366 days. During that time period, I was unable to take a picture of myself in 16 days and the first two pictures were taken on the same day, April 13 (to show the before and after effects of my head shaving). 349 days of pictures equates to a 95.4% success rate, not bad for a year. For the next, I'll see if I can hit 100%!
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Tomorrow begins today.