Day 366

Preferred nickname?
Urvi in most cases, but for my closest friends Urv.

Birthplace?
El Camino Hospital, Mountain View, California.

Paper or plastic?
If I can avoid getting a bag, I like to use my hands. But if I’m getting too many items to fit in my hands, either will do, both will be re-used and recycled.

Favorite childhood toy?
I went through phases, and I guess I still do. So at any given point there was a distinct favorite and thus I can relate to all the Lego lovers out there, the book worms and so forth. But after thinking about this question for a while, there are two things which stick out in my mind, I loved to pretend markers were people and invent personalities and relationships for them. It made drawing pictures much more exciting because it indicated the success of the marker and where a marker was on the color wheel also indicated its social standing and who it got along with. The shades would determine personality – so Navy blue was a serious workaholic. Sky blue was a bit too idealist, pink was the stereotypical girl and never got along with orange who was a free thinker. I could go on for ages about that. I also loved to try ideas I got from whatever I was reading. So after reading Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH I had to try eating an acorn. After reading Benjamin West and His Cat Grimalkin I made a paintbrush using my own hair. And after reading Sign of the Beaver, I had to try making my own bows and arrows.

Where were you on 9 -11?
I found out while getting ready for marching band in Packard Hall at Mountain View High. Even though I remember finding out early in the morning, it wasn’t until during marching practice when seeing all the inbound flight traffic returning to San Jose and the outbound military planes from Moffet that I realized it was anything important. I remember when the band director realized how serious it was, she gave a short speech about how something big had happened, we would remember this day for the rest of our lives, and that some of us probably knew people who were personally affected. Then she cancelled our afternoon rehearsal and we were dismissed. Marching band being cancelled was what made me realize it was really a big deal. My first through sixth periods the TVs were on so the images were mentally ingrained then. My 7th period class however, I remember because we were told that since there’d been no new information for several hours, we’d continue with the planned lecture on imperialism.

Best piece of advice you could give?
Trust your sense of reason because good advice is rare.
You should ask for advice, but never surrender reason to follow it; rather it should be used it as a means to question your perspective, reasoning and assumptions in making a decision. Make sure you believe in what you're doing and do it.

Favorite way to spend an afternoon?
With free time, a full tank of gas and the kind of friend(s) who will embrace the moment enough to make me forget about the time and my to do list.

Song of the week?
A year ago when I started this project I thought it would be great if my song of the week was Tell Me Baby by the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But finishing this project has been such a whirlwind of emotions that if a song truly fits, it barely last. How Far We’ve Come by Matchbox Twenty seemed to fit yesterday. This Used to be Our Playground like Madonna also seems fitting. And then a friend of mine and I just finished writing a song called ASDF (and so do fools) which I have to say because it truly is mine.

Latest book or movie you’d recommend to a friend?
Wall-e.

Do you know any racist jokes?
After asking this question 365 times, yes, I definitely do.

Who wins in a caged battle-to-the-death match: Rosie O’Donnell or Oprah?
Whichever network bought the rights to broadcast the fight. The reason I love this question is I originally intended it to be a complete non sequitur because when people are surprised it’s harder to control facial ticks, and that gave me a clue for what I could try to bring out in a portrait. But as I asked the question I got answers that analyzed the fight based upon age, weight, social status, economic status, personal histories, race, sexuality, and fight tactics they might employ. Also it seemed everyone was pretty certain that their answer was right and obvious and anyone to think otherwise was nuts, which entertained me. I personally have no clue about what my gut reaction would be as I picked the question in what I thought would be a fair and evenly matched fight – so I guess it’s like the Olympics, you don’t know till it happens but if you put money on Phelps, you’ll probably win.

Day 365

Today is Day 365.

...I made it!

On August 28th 2007 I wrote and posted this on the blog:

“365 Faces of the Year

This project is an attempt to explore how people wish to define themselves in conjunction with what a stranger sees. For the next 365 days, I will attempt to meet, interview and photograph one person per day. I’d like to meet and learn about as many people as possible during the course of this project, thus I will hopefully interacting mainly with people met for the sake of the project. While it is the goal to meet and learn about new people- I will also try to include old friends, acquaintances and family members in order to get to know them all better as well. The photography side of the project will include a snapshot portrait taken immediately after the interview. Right now I have two black leather notebooks in which to record the interviews and paste in photographs, however I’d like to expand the project in a more finished form when nearing completion of the year.

I’ve been planning on doing a project of this nature for a while and thus far it has been put on the back burner. I’m hoping once I get over the initially hurdle of starting it, it will pay off however. I have been a photo blogger on two of my own sites recently ( urv & United Random Visions Inc.), though both of these are rather free form. I’m hoping a more organized project will help motivate and inspire me to not get stuck in a rut with the type of photography I do. I’m a freelancing amateur who’s taken several workshop classes at Foothill College and I was Photo Student of the Year my senior year in high school. Anyway- that’s enough about me. I hope you’ll enjoy looking at this project as it progresses!”

I gave up on the black leather notebooks early on because it was more convenient to keep pieces of binder paper in my photo bag which made it easier to carry everything with me at any given point. I met many people, I also did include old friends, acquaintances and family members and I’m really glad I did. Right now looking through the interviews it feels like I interviewed many more friends than strangers, however many of those friends were met for the sake of the project and over the course of the year became friends- which I am incredibly grateful for.

The initial hurdle to start was tough, but I think the hardest portions of the project were not the interviews themselves, it was getting up and out of the house after multiple all-nighters, during finals, when stressed from college applications, going out after a long day of work and so forth. During the interviews I always loved the project, but some days wandering around looking for a person to meet was exhausting to a degree I didn’t anticipate, though once I was sitting and talking I am pretty sure the goofy grin returned to my face as when reflecting I remember enjoyment more than anything when with people.
As for what this project has done to my photography – I think it is still too early to say as I’ve not yet uploaded the majority of the project. But it has helped my confidence a great deal because I got a chance to prove to myself even if I’m not the best at meeting other peoples’ standards, when I set a goal and say “I WILL do this” then I can in fact hold myself to such promises.

In case you were going to ask what's next, I'm just going to enjoy this for a bit before thinking about uploading/organizing/sharing the product.
Thanks for being here to enjoy this with me!

-Urvi

Song of today:
Let's See How Far We've Come by Matchbox Twenty