I'm not dead! Just busy.

When I decided to take some time off to help me rest my eyes before the post-processing part of the project, I thought a month or two would do the trick. By October I could resume things and it would all go smoothly.

But I forgot to consider some important things, namely school, the elections and what those things in conjunction do to my ability to focus. However the good thing is during this time I've done something I haven't done in a while, I picked up my film camera. I've started taking 35mm shots again, and I've been working on a film production at school. The result of this is I'm starting to become energized again. I'm once again taking photos and films because I *want* to. Because I can't resist trying to capture the world and tell a story without words. And this is truly exciting for me.

When September came the first thing I wanted to do was drop the camera, drop the questions and avoid anything organized. Now I'm once again finding excitement in meeting new people, taking new photos and embracing the experiences that come with it.

So what am I doing now? At this minute, procrastinating on a paper. But in general I'm remembering the excitement of the idea that drove me to begin the project. Which is what I wanted to achieve from a break. With that in mind I'm pretty sure as soon as finals are done you're going to see a lot more from me. Until then, thanks for your patience and I hope you'll stick around to see where this ends up when it is finally finished!

The adventure begins again.

Have you begun to wonder if 365 Faces of the Year will ever be finished? If so - the wait is about to end.

This weekend I will resume with the post processing of the project and I will continue at the rate of one per day with typing, post processing and hopefully posting the images I spent all of last year shooting. I can't tell if I'm excited, anxious or some strange mix of the two. But if you've been waiting to see a friend, family member, or even yourself here - the wait between new posts is almost over. And then I'll be posting frequently again. Thanks for waiting with me!

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

Counting Down

Three hundred and twenty four days down. Forty-one to go.

Recently I have found my daily quest for a face has been getting harder and harder. During the school year it is easier to see new faces in class, the campus coffee shop, shows, dorms, and so forth. During the school year I have a set pattern, I wake up by 7, am in class by 8, and after class I find time for my interviews, social life, job and hobbies. However the school year ended during the last week of June, and since then the challenge of finding my face of the day has become harder for me. Without a set schedule to plan around, my hours run together, thus picking a time and place to find my face has become more flexible- which for most people would make the task easier. However with the freedom to do anything also comes the desire to do nothing. Suddenly my body has been reminded of it’s sleep debt. I just spent nearly two weeks cleaning my room in the way I should have for spring cleaning- but I passed on it then due to finals. My interest in new projects has begun to resurface and suddenly learning to cook seems like a good idea. With the heat outside and a plethora of things to do inside, the idea of going out and meeting people seems a little less exciting. Which makes it a harder task.

This is by no means a reflection on the people I’ve met, the interviews I’ve recently had or the photos I’ve been taking. Consider this rambling list of complaints somewhat similar to my feelings towards mornings. I detest waking up. I hate the sound of my alarm clock. And I think sunrises are beautiful, the morning fog is incredibly refreshing, and the relaxation of reading the newspaper while eating breakfast is something I cherish- I just detest waking up.

The people I have met are amazing. When I’m interviewing people I genuinely enjoy myself. The smile I wear is not me feigning interest to try to be polite, it’s a result of the fact that 324 days in I still reconnect with my childhood every time I ask the 4th question. Everyday I still have the experience of learning something new, making a connection, enjoying it and having reflections prompted by it. The joy of this project has not been lost on me, I’m just getting tired. The backlog of photos to be uploaded, interviews to be typed and then of course the belated organizing of the blog all await. And despite the fact that I’ve given myself a break for a reason, knowing they remain on the to do list is an exhausting thought. The languid days of summer make me want to just sleep through the afternoons to make up for all the all nighters in the last year. The heat and haze from recent fires makes the great indoors just a little more appealing. And the lack of a daily schedule means rather than meeting someone who shares the same school, coffee shop, social circles etc... I must chose the location in which to find my face rather than simply squeezing it into the daily routine. Furthermore the academic year started and ended during the length of this project and as a life long student I have grown accustomed to thinking of a year as 9 months.

The result of all of this- rather than counting up as I had been doing, I now find myself counting down.
41 more days.
41 more people.
451 more questions (not including the may I interview you question- that would make it 492.)
41 more portraits.

And my song of the week is either
Oh My Love by Sampson and The Folkadelics
or
The Dynamo of Volition by Jason Mraz

Day 300

At some point in the next 23 hours, I will meet, interview and photograph my person of the day for Day 300. Cue the self-congratulatory pats on the back, e-celebrations and then my return to normal. (Or as close to it as I ever get.)

300 days. By the end of today I will have meet or gotten to know better, 300 people. Actually more than that. Because one day I met four people (only one interview was on the record but I spoke to four people). It’s not uncommon that I get to hear answers from not only my interviewee but their friends, family, dates, or random strangers within earshot. So I’ve met... a lot of people.

And now.. I’ve a little more than two months till the completion of the interview and photography portion of this project. Then of course there’s the huge task of typing all the interviews, uploading all the photos, all the post processing, e-mailing the people I’ve met with their copies of photos and organizing all of it in some presentable way. But for now- I shall celebrate how far this idea has come from the whim that I cemented into place with the creation of a logo, blog, business card and butterflies in my stomach last August. Thanks for being here for the ride!

Song(s) of the Week:
Sunshine Lady - Two Spot Gobi
(How far we've come - Matchbox Twenty ... more in regards to this post)

Observations - Living in Labels and 365 Faces of the Year

I’m working on two projects which are very different: 365 Faces of the Year and Living in Labels. One is a portrait project that seeks to compare first impressions with assumptions from a stranger and the other is a portrait project that seeks to compare first impressions when seen with assumptions from strangers. Wait...

365 Faces of the Year is a noteworthy project not due to the quality of the photographs or the answers received, but rather for the sheer number of photographs and answers. The similarities and differences, the unexpected answers and unusual perspectives... they all contribute to some greater whole that is hard to define (given that I’m not done, I don’t think I can or should try to define it now). But everyday is a new day, and it’s hard to push the envelope when everyday is a new quest.

Meanwhile while working on Living in Labels instead of starting on a fresh page everyday I come into the studio with a goal and go from there. Weeks before a shoot I start collecting the labels, organizing them, and when I go into the studio my model is ready to face how other’s perceive them while taking a portrait. There’s a lot of preparation involved in the shoot and rather than being a snapshot portrait, the photos are legitimate portraits.

Both of these projects look at what is and what appears to be within an individual. One asks others how they judge and then presents the individual with those judgements. The other asks individuals questions and presents them for judgement. The central theme of identity seems to be something I can’t get away from, especially given that it wasn’t something I consciously thought I should shape my major projects around.

Something I’ve noticed especially with Living in Labels is the difference between what people assume people think, and what people do think (or at least what thoughts they present). Despite the fact that people are given the chance to provide anonymous feedback, the amount of negative feedback has been almost non-existent. Although I received a some negative labels when I tested the project on myself, less than a dozen out of 150 labels I received were slanted in a negative manner. In fact for the latest model I had labeled nearly 50% of those who submitted labels said she was beautiful. My models were pleasantly surprised to discover that rather than being given offensive slurs, they found ego boosting compliments to their positive actions.

While doing 365 Faces of the Year the thing I’ve been most continually surprised by is how easy it is to meet someone. In line for coffee, in bookstores, at shows, through friends, at parks, on planes... it really doesn’t matter. I’ve been turned down for interviews by people who were busy or just not in a particularly talkative mood, but despite the fact that I’m 281 days in, I would say the TOTAL times people have rejected my requests for interviews would be less than 100. And that’s including a few bad days were I’d get turned down by 4 people in a row. Almost every person I’ve asked to be in the project seems interested and I hope (though I can’t speak for them), they enjoy themselves as much as I do. It truly amazes me how easy it is to meet people, and how after meeting someone once the doorway to a friendship is opened. The vast majority of people I’ve interviewed were total strangers when I began, but now when looking down the list I see more friends than strangers. Furthermore, appearances don’t seem to matter, approach and attitude is everything. When I started this project I had long curly hair and was much more “socially acceptable”in appearance. However now I’m sporting a mohawk, and despite the fact that some perceptions of me have changed, I noticed no difference in how people have responded to my project. Even if people make an initial judgement, this in no way seems to affect their willingness to change their minds.

I guess if there’s a point to this reflection it is to share my current optimism. In my experience with these projects, strangers are willing to give their time and aren’t as judging as society says they are. And the barriers between us and the people we encounter tend not to be due to a lack of interest in new relationships and friendships or due to judgements and prejudice, but rather because we’re too lazy to initiate them.

Song of the Week
Breathe of Life by Erasure
or Butterfly by Jason Mraz