To begin with, a year is roughly the longest time most of us can easily understand. If we think of time as units with which we work, it is rare to deal with a unit of time longer than a year. We can think, somewhat easily, of "next year" on a daily basis; we do not generally think of "two years from now" or "ten years from now." When we're kids, the year is the first long period of time we understand; before we know what a decade is, what a century is, we understand the length of a year. As we get older, our lives are transformed into cycles roughly one year long -- school, work, taxes -- and we come to define our lives in terms of this unit of time that feels arbitrary and is anything but.
We think we know what a year is. At least, I thought I did, and then I realized that I really don't know how much is in a year. My journals and my notes stretch back the better part of a decade, and yet I have no clear idea what makes up a year. A lot of life happens in a year, but sometimes nothing happens. It seems like a year is a long time, and it is; sometimes, though, it doesn't seem long enough, and it isn't.
In the end, a year is exactly as long as it needs to be.
What is the relationship between the year that we see, and the year that we experience? What are the images that make up our lives over the course of a year? What do 365 days look like?
For one year -- the stretch between 14 July 2004 and 14 July 2005, I will be taking one picture per day. Just one. No more. I have no idea what sort of themes will emerge, or whether there will be a coherent message that can be understood come the end of the project. But on 15 July 2005, I will be able to look back at my assembled chronology of the year that was; through these pictures, I hope to measure the passage of my days.
NB: Technically, this project is a part of Under a Blackened Sky, but is housed here separately.. for reasons I don't really understand. Or maybe this project is technically a stand-alone, and I'm using Under a Blackened Sky as a bridge. Who knows. Point being, you can visit this page if all you want is the photographic content; you can visit the other place if you want the photographic content and the other random crap I periodically provide. What a deal!
Many images are cross-filed, since it doesn't actually cost me anything except bits (which are basically free).
