May 28 2008
Jamie Livingston Lived
I was moved a week ago to share this, but I made myself wait.
In 1979, a young man hoping to make it in the film business began taking a photo each day with his Polaroid SX-70 camera. He categorized them by date and didn’t stop until the day he died. That day came only 18 years after he started — a long time to continue such a project, but a short time to live.
Those who loved him made sure his photos survived and in 2007 began an exhibit featuring 6,697 of them at Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, New York.
Started as a private site for those close to the project, the website featuring Livingston’s photos found its way into the public eye and, thanks to being Digg’s second-most-popular link of the week, crashed. I sat on this post until I could see more of the pictures myself and knew the site was up and working again on a more robust server.
Although a few photo-a-day websites manage to capture our imaginations, the ubiquity of those that don’t makes it difficult to sort through the chaff. Livingston, however, managed to capture ordinary moments in an extraordinary way. Perhaps that’s because, unlike so many modern bloggers, he wasn’t doing it for show.
The moving article I can’t hope to top (sent by Alvis) incorporates highlight photos with narrative:
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/15131
Livingston’s Photos are here (the link in the article above does not work as of 5/28/2008):
http://photooftheday.hughcrawford.com/
I am off to check it out…I can’t wait!
;)
That is good stuff. May take awhile to get through all of them but it is quite interesting. Especially the shots from the 70’s and early 80’s.
This is a very touching post and article. I only started browsing the pictures and will have to return. Thank you so much for sharing his story and leading us to his work.
Wow… only took a peek so far, and very interesting!
I also saw the article sent by Alvis, and it is a moving tribute for one man. I think it’s especially poignant in that he passed away early and rather unexpectedly. Pictures of a life cut too short rather than a documentary of a life lived to its more natural conclusion. That element of tragedy always adds something that touches the heart strings.