New photo project: 100 self-portraits over the course of a year, with accompanying text by Dante.
I’ve never felt I could do a 365 justice, nor do I want to attempt it. Taking a photo of yourself every single day means you have to do it even when you’re ill, or too busy to do it well, or just not feeling it for whatever reason. In most cases, it seems to become a chore, something people do just for the sake of saying they did it. No one is on their A-game everyday all year round, and to be honest, at this point A-game is the only thing I’m interested in. If that means I take a photo every three days instead of everyday, or take eight in a day when I’m on fire and then skip it for a month when I don’t feel it, then that’s fine. I never want this to be about quota over quality. At the same time, the challenge of a framework is good to push the work ethic. “X amount of photos within Y timeframe” has worked well for me in the past, as it holds me to a number while giving me the flexibility not to take photos on days when those photos would be mediocre at best.
Why self-portraits? Because with all the attractive people around me, I hardly photograph myself anymore. Like my friend Rachel remarked, it’s easy to feel like you’ve forgotten how to capture your own image. And I don’t want to forget.
The set is here; one photo up so far, but you can hook up to the RSS feed on that page and watch them roll in.