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Jeff Harris has taken a self-portrait every day for fourteen years, a project the photographer claims has been life-changing - and life-affirming. "I didn't want 365 images of me sitting on the couch each day," he says. "This project has inspired me to get out there and seek out interesting things." 

I had the pleasure of watching Jeff's video (pasted below) at this year's Photoville event in Brooklyn, and his story stayed with me. I particularly love the many photos of him jumping into water, a theme he addresses in the film. There are ups and downs - and a cancer diagnosis - along the way; still, fourteen years down the road, he's still taking portraits, still taking leaps.


Fittingly, Jeff's website features this quote from the always-inspirational Andrew W.K.: "We can't pretend like this is just another day! This is THE day! We have never been given today before!"

Indeed. See more at Jeff Harris's site, here.

17 comments:

  1. Beautiful. Some days are better than others, but it's important to take something away from every, single day.

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  2. sho - where do you curate all your lovely content?

    do you have a list of blogs that you check daily? i only have a few (yours being one of them) but i'd love more!

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  3. Wow! How totally inspiring. What a great project he created. Thanks for sharing.

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  4. Thank you for sharing this!

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  5. Katie, yes!

    Melissa, some good ones: Messy Nessy Chic, Colossal, Paris Review, This Isn't Happiness, Kottke. There are so many - too many to list! :)

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  6. This makes me remember to be grateful and feel blessed that I have four working limbs. It's so amazing that he pushed himself to keep going with this project even after the cancer and surgery and paralyzation. A lot of people probably would've given up on it and given in to their constraints. This is beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

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  7. What a wonderful idea - I love his thinking about it. It reminds me of this poem I literally just read on Rooth's blog:

    The Life of a Day by Tom Hennen

    Like people or dogs, each day is unique and has its own personality quirks which can easily be seen if you look closely. But there are so few days as compared to people, not to mention dogs, that it would be surprising if a day were not a hundred times more interesting than most people. But usually they just pass, mostly unnoticed, unless they are wildly nice, like autumn ones full of red maple trees and hazy sunlight, or if they are grimly awful ones in a winter blizzard that kills the lost traveler and bunches of cattle. For some reason we like to see days pass, even though most of us claim we don’t want to reach our last one for a long time. We examine each day before us with barely a glance and say, no, this isn’t one I’ve been looking for, and wait in a bored sort of way for the next, when we are convinced, our lives will start for real. Meanwhile, this day is going by perfectly well-adjusted, as some days are, with the right amounts of sunlight and shade, and a light breeze scented with a perfume made from the mixture of fallen apples, corn stubble, dry oak leaves, and the faint odor of last night’s meandering skunk.

    I think the universe is telling me to embrace the day!

    Ronnie xo

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  8. This is life-changing. Beautiful story.

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  9. Ren, I agree - he's amazing!

    Ronnie, I love this! Thank you so much for posting it!

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  10. oh my goodness what a great quote and what an inspirational guy. I've seen his project before but thanks for reminding me to get out there :)

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  11. What an inspirational post! Thank you for sharing! (And really love your blog!! Keep it coming!)

    Warmest,
    Liz and Lo
    {celesteandpearl.blogspot.com}

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  12. I love these photos. Such a timeless quality to them and an important message. We all have to remember to dive in sometime!

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