Wednesday 29 July 2009

On Daily Photo Projects...

Noah takes a photo of himself Everyday for 6 years...



Many of you will already have seen the above viral video comprising the first 2000-odd images of this project flashing by at a rate of 6 per second set to a haunting piano score. When i first watched it almost 3 years ago I must say I was enthralled by the beautiful simplicity of the idea. Every day he held a camera at arm's length and took a picture of himself with the same neutral melancholic expression in a range of locations in and around his home at at work.

For some reason I found this compulsive viewing, although the other people I showed the video to at university were divided as to its worth. Personally I find it amazing how a whole life can be condensed down to a few minutes of images. I also like the idea of maintaining a thread of continuity across such a long period of time, during which so many things in life will inevitably change, yet the taking of the photos and the person in the image remains constant. Perhaps though that's just the emotive music having an effect!

I suppose I can appreciate how it could be seen as boring. Noah's not exactly the most exciting person to watch seeing as between the ages of 19 and 25 his appearance doesn't really change all that much bar his fair flopping all over the place and even that seems to be kept within a length range of about 2cm for most of the shots. Still, by the look of his latest photos, he's looking a bit more haggard and sporting scruffy facial hair, so I shall look forward to his next video.

Anyway, like it or loathe it, from the number of views it has had on Youtube, he is probably one of the most successful Visual Arts graduates ever in reaching an audience. That, and the video has had what has been described as the greatest praise any visual media can have, to be parodied by the Simpsons.

Having been interested by this video, I started to look at others of the same ilk.

I must say that my favourite is this one by Jonathan Keller who actually started some time before Noah. I think this is made better by the speed at which the photos whizz by, which allows you to get a greater impression of the change in his appearance over a long span of time, made all the more clear by the precision with which he poses each day and centres his eyes for each shot making up the video. Furthermore, he experiments with his appearance a lot more than Noah, with glasses, and a variety of cuts to his hair and facial hair, especially near the end of the video.


Keller has also compiled a list of other notable obsessive photo projects, including this one of a man who has photographed himself every day for 17 years (!), which I encourage you to browse through if you have been interested by the above (and of course there are loads more on YouTube).

I must say I tried doing this for myself starting in January 2007, which made me realise just how much of a bother I would have found it to take one every day! I found it pretty hard to pose in exactly the same neutral (?) way all the time and I ended up missing a day before a month had gone by. I guess I'll just have to remember my youth through standard photos, but I can deal with that.

Besides, making a blog post every day has been more fun so far!

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