On january 1st, 2008 I began a project where I would take one polaroid picture every day of 2008. It was a fun, challenging, and sometimes frustrating endeavor, but I now have 365 polaroids portraying the ups and downs and travels of a year in my life. And 2009 is upon us...
The most rewarding aspect of that project was the fact that every day I was forced to look at the world around me and experience each day on a very visual level. Oftentimes, though, I'd pass over what turned out to be a great photographic opportunity in the hope a better one would be around the corner, resulting in a mediocre photo for the day. However, the project was not about the “best” photography but rather simply of a diary of seeing for a year.
As 2008 drew to a close I set my sights to 2009. A picture-a-day was very challenging, do Igive myself a break, freedom from carrying the Polaroid with me every day, freedom from having to constantly be on the lookout? Or, was the forcing of this creative project on me every day a priceless exercise? Never one to rest, I have decided that in 2009, starting on January 1st, of course, I will carry a small digital audio recorder with me every day of the year and record one sound per day.
As a musician I rarely work with “field recordings” although I am familiar with them enough as a sound source and have used them in my compositions from time to time. However, I am always listening and find beauty and serenity in many of the everyday sounds that surround me. This exercise will not only force me to listen more carefully every day, but expand my own sound palette. Like my polaroids, it will not be about capturing a "perfect" sound, but be a simple audio diary of each day. Undoubtedly, there will be many wonderful sounds that I capture, but that is not the primary focus of the project.
I will not set a time limit on each day’s recordings, but rather make each recording as long as it needs to be to capture whatever it is i’ll be recording. The only rule I will set on myself is that all of sounds must be recorded through a microphone, no direct line connections into the recorder. This will assure a certain quality (at times, poor) and character. These recordings will be featured on my blog (12kblog.wordpress.com) and, of course, this web page.
If 2008 was a year of seeing every day, 2009 will be a year of listening. The death of Polaroid's instant film market has made the Polaroid-a-day difficult to continue... My project was timely. Needless to say, as a photographer, I will never stop looking, nor will I rarely be caught without a camera, but to form a year’s worth of living and travelling with an audio diary will be a new way for me to experience each day.
- Taylor Deupree
