msuCatalyst →

by megan gebhart

I don’t know where the idea came from. I was thinking about my algebra homework and suddenly a new thought is occupying my mind like an unexpected visitor at dinner.

 I should take a picture everyday for an entire year—create a visual diary of my life.

I let the idea linger long enough to get excited about the possibilities, but kicked it out my head once I calculated the essentials of the project. 365 pictures x 27 pictures in a roll of film x $5 for a roll of film x $4.99 processing at my local Wal-Mart equated to $135.05 and more rolls of film than I want to deal with—and that’s if I got a good picture on the first try. Considering my instrument for photo capture was a $20 camera Santa brought me when I was 14, I’d have to take a few shots before I got a keeper. Even more, I didn’t want the hassle of carrying a camera around with me wherever I went. 

See, this idea popped into my head in 2001, before technology blessed us with digital cameras and camera-equipped smartphones that work nearly as well. The notion that I would someday be able take a photo and instantly send it to my brother 1,000 miles away, or upload it to Facebook for anyone to see, was unfathomable. So I put the idea out to pasture and moved on.

Fast forward to December 2008, I’m standing in line at AT&T purchasing my iPhone—complete with a 4 megapixel camera—and the idea resurrects itself. With a camera always in my pocket (because I rarely go anywhere without my phone), and space for over 5,000 photos, taking a picture every day would be a breeze! So I launched my yearlong experiment in photography and life.

The first two weeks were harder than expected. For the most part, the project was exciting, but at other times, it was a hassle. Sometimes I just plain forgot. I would have a great dinner with friends only to go home and realize I had missed a great photo opportunity and be forced to settle on something mundane for the day. But I kept at it.

Then something interesting happened. I started to notice small details, to look around and notice the world around me instead of getting caught up in day-to-day life. I started to see the charm in pictures of the mundane—the nuances in life that aren’t worth much individually, but form the building blocks of our lives. It’s not just a picture of a flower sitting on our second-hand dinning room table. It is a memory of the impulse trip to Miejer to escape homework blues  with a roommate and the two months that followed as my roommate diligently attempted—successfully—to turn a $3 dollar bulb into something magnificent.

Or how the picture of the fruit stand with delicious peaches temporarily takes me back to San Francisco where I spent the summer commuting into the city for an internship. I would stop at the stand in the mornings to grab a snack for later in the day and enjoy the vibrant atmosphere of fresh foods and friendly cashiers. That memory leads to another, and another, before I've suddenly recreated a great part of my summer.

La Sagrada Familia, Barcelona

Other pictures are more memorable: seeing the Eiffle Tower or La Sagrada Familia while in Europe, getting my wisdom teeth pulled, celebrating my birthday—memories that I enjoyed so much, I want to share them with others. I used a simple Facebook album to collect the pictures and captioned each day so my friends didn’t think I was crazy for uploading a picture of a refrigerator or a random shot of a tree. At the end of the year, I was so excited about how the project turned out, I decided to make the pictures more permanent than a Facebook album so I found a company online that makes photo books and created my own.

The book arrived in the mail this week and I’ve already looked through it countless times. A lot can happen in a year, and it’s amazing to see what you can forget about in 12 short months. The pictures become portals to memories long replaced by concepts from class, grocery lists, and the latest news. The freeze-frames capture just one second, but take me back a moment in time, a day, a week, an experience and the corresponding emotion. Looking at the pictures allows me to remember a transformational year of my and relive the surprising, challenging, and wonderful moments that made it a year I’ll never forget.

It’s a project I’d recommend to anyone, so check out the online version of my book and get started on your own! Then add a comment and tell us how its going!

• http://www.mypublisher.com/?e=OHm3Q8zJl3RV0QMuNYsYo_vsh_sD9TB-&showForm=true