100,000 Photos in 5 Years

[Anonymous]

We live in a culture that is now undeniably obsessed with itself. Everyone takes at least an occasional selfie, or snaps a quick pic of a stranger whom they found interesting, or a shot of the crowd erupting in cheers at the winning point of the football game. With the ease in which we can take photos now, without the use of having to trudge to our local photo developer and hand over our precious memories to some 18 year old who definitely used to keep photos of the ones he liked, we're free to take as many or as little photos as we want.

Five years ago, I decided that I wanted to document my life, and not just the happy birthday's or the weddings where everything is perfect and good and everyone is in a good mood, but the days when life sucked, and people died, or I was bored out of my skull at work, or I literally did nothing all day. I wanted to be able to fully tell my story through my POV so that in some distant future if my kids wanted to know what Mom was really like a million dinosaur years ago, or I wanted to recall what exactly we ate for Thanksgiving dinner one particular year, or remember why I swore I'd never go back to that vacation spot again, it would be all there in pictures.

I set out to do this for exactly one year initially. Although taking pictures is easy, remembering to do so every single day, was actually a lot harder to do in reality. I mean, on your worst day, how excited are you to snap a photo? This is why they don't tend to make it into our precious photo albums and catalogs. But I was committed to my project because I knew at the end, I would be able to see myself and what I felt was important or stupid or happy or interesting including seeing myself change throughout the year.

I started the project thinking I would just get my 365 photos, but on day one, I actually decided that I would take one picture of myself and one of something else everyday, so I should have ended the year with 730 pictures, but of course on some days, like a vacation or a holiday, you take a lot more than just one or two pictures, so at the end of the first year, I ended the year with some 21,000 photos, which is a number that would only increase in the 4 years that followed it.

I was absolutely amazed by, well, myself. It was literally like walking through my life every single day. Sure there were days when it would be like a photo of my pillow or a doorframe, where I knew nothing was happening, but there were other days like the birth of my nephew, or visiting friends I hadn't seen in years, or the death of my grandmother and one of my best friends, that made me pause and feel incredibly humbled that I had a visual representation of these memories.

Before cameras were this accessible and cheap, people used to write letters to one another documenting their lives in back and fourth correspondence which are of such a value and a documentation of history. I feel these are my letters. By many of the images, I am humbled and grateful. We sometimes forget how good we really have it and can convince ourselves that compared to others, we have nothing, but when you're sitting there face to face with the images of what you do have and who you are, and who your family, friends, relationships, and pets are, its a stunning reminder of the beauty and fragility of life. I would really encourage anyone to take on this project because so much can be learned just by being you.

[COCOCHANEL]

i feel the same way. i love to capture the moment.

[Anonymous]

Cool. Hope you have good organization and backup.