Tuesday, January 19, 2010

This day, this hour

Several friends are participating in a photographic life-journaling effort called Project 365/Project Life. The idea is to document each day of the year photographically. The photographs are intended to represent one's life during the course of the year; written journaling is optional.

I started Project 365 last year but wandered from it after about two weeks, never to return for 2009. This year I see one friend's daily expression on facebook, another shares her weekly collection on her blog. I decided I would give it another go.

Here it is the nineteenth day of the month and I feel a bit stumped about what to photograph. My days are very much alike, and the scenery doesn't change much. I spend a lot of time at my computer. Then there are the occasions, like yesterday when I did a home communion, that I would have loved to photograph that. It felt awkward to me, however, to show up with camera in hand with an obvious agenda that the visit afforded me an opportunity to accomplish something, rather than focus on the person to whom I was taking communion. Scratch that.

When I was in college I took a photography course that included an assignment to take pictures at two times during the day: 10:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Wherever we were. I still have those photos somewhere. The morning shot was of my mailbox, since checking my mail occurred at that time pretty much every day. In the afternoon my photo was of the softball coach hitting a ball into the outfield during the team's daily practice. I've been contemplating a similar approach to Project 365 to help me focus on different aspects of my day to help me "see" my life less subjectively.

In search of a graphic to go with this post I came upon this clock. It's creation is the result of an assignment for a college or graduate course dealing with design, and reflects a collection of brands related to a particular industry. The post accompanying this graphic was intriguing and got me thinking about how our environment reflects our identity. Sort of like how a collection of daily photographs reflects, to some extent, who we are through snapshots in time (pun intended).

As I do a visual, 180 degree sweep of the area around my computer as I write this there are a host of different symbols that reflect me: sheep-lover, dog person, quilter, appreciator of Celtic art, friend, step-mother, scrapper, cousin, daughter, pray-er, Pampered Chef consultant, coffee drinker, reader, music-lover, correspondent, crossword puzzle junkie, priest. Those are some of the obvious descriptors. A more reflective glance would reveal other signs that contribute to the person I am, but you get my point.

I'm thinking that it might be a fun project to create a clock that, through words, pictures, or a combination of the two, would represent who I am, or at least who I want to share with the world. And I wonder--what would you include in your clock?

2 comments:

The Bug said...

That is a really cool clock! Mine would be pretty boring though - reading blogs all day! I do other stuff SOMETIMES, but I think such a clock would reveal my blogging obsession. But I don't want to drop anyone from my blogroll!

Unknown said...

Very cool idea. I'm afraid my photos would be quite repetitious, though, at this point in my life: dogs, scene from deck, dogs, dogs, friend, dogs, dogs, dogs, cat, son, dogs, kitchen, dogs and so on. Yes, the photo on my blog this week is the scene from my "back porch", which is actually a balcony that stretches the entire length of my house. We built our "dream" log house in 2008. I have rarely left it since my husband passed away. I am going to make a concentrated effort to get away from here more. It's difficult because I am very comfortable here, maybe a little too comfortable sometimes. Thanks again for your wise comments on my post and your own excellent blog. Your time at your computer is well spent.

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