...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
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