A Week in Pictures
Here’s something you might not know about me (or which, actually, might be painfully obvious): I am fascinated by the mundane, everyday details of people’s lives. This is an interest that’s come in handy as my friends have scattered far and wide; it brings me a lot of delight to be able to construct their daily routines from all my questions. There is no detail that is too quotidian for my survey: “What time do you wake up? Do you bring your lunch to work? Do you read on the subway? What do you do in the evenings?” And on and on. I know that Katie, for example, keeps a loaf of great country bread in the freezer, pops a slice in the toaster, slathers it with rich, European butter she keeps wrapped in wax paper and then sits at her kitchen counter sipping tea before work each morning. People love talking about themselves, so I find that, though perhaps not as scintillating as an excavation of their deepest darkest secrets, people are happy to share how they spend their day to day.
It only became clear to me in the past few years that the reason I love these question and answer sessions is because I’m trying to figure out how other people make it work. How they create rituals out of the day in, day out that bring meaning or pleasure or both. How they fill their days in a way that suits them. How they pass the time without letting it waste away.
So it only follows that when I stumbled across Ali Edwards amazing scrapbooking blog awhile back, I fell in love with her “Week in the Life” project. For one week, you document your life. Receipts from dinner. Pictures of your trip to the doctor. Scribbles about the fight you’re in with a friend and the way the morning sun looks in your living room. The good, the bad, and the ugly. Ali sets the creative bar high with pretty templates and enviable organization; I know I can’t do that. But I can take pictures of the ordinary day-to-day of my life. And at the end of the week, I can print them out and put them together in a book for posterity. Or just pile them in a folder on the desktop. And really, whether you make it an arts and crafts project or a simple exercise in awareness, it doesn’t really matter; the gem of the idea is still there.
Don’t you love the idea that among our pictures of graduation, vacations, births and birthdays, there could also be a chronicle of the everyday? Our blogs, you could say, capture this. But blogs are such an idealized version of life (and that’s one reason we love them). I rearrange the junk on the kitchen counter so it’s out of frame, and Photoshop out the stains on the table. But what about the way we really live? The coffee, the laptop, the trip to the post office, the dinner on the coffee table. Because the way we spend our days is the way we live our lives. And though it seems messy and imperfect now (and will, I have a hunch, continue to feel messy and imperfect for a long, long while), some day I will want to remember the last week I was 27. The way my hair fell across my forehead, and the purple tulips that were losing their petals on the kitchen table.
So here it is: a suggestion to join in and document your own week, in whatever form works best for you — pictures on your cell phone, polaroids, whatever. Some day someone’s going to ask you, “What were you like way back when?” And there it will be: the tiny, little details of the every day life you lived.
Samantha Angela @ Bikini Birthday: I’m with you on loving the details of people’s lives. I ask a lot of questions about the trivial things people do.1 year ago
Pauline: What a great idea! When I look at my own pictures I often wish I would have taken more in my everyday life and not just on the special occasions.1 year ago
Tiffany: YES! This is fantastic! I’m in!
I’m currently keeping a 5-year one line a day journal where I just write down the highlight of every day. I think this will be so amazing to have to look back on.1 year ago
Kristina: As a fellow photoshopper and junk-relocater, I love this idea. It’ll be terrific to see what the week brings, with everyone joining in.
1 year ago
Kristina: I justified this itch to be nosy by becoming a student of anthropology!
I love this idea and will totally give it a try!1 year ago
MrsB: sounds great! I am doing the flickr 365 project so this makes for a great week of that!
yipeeeeee I love a project!
I can’t wait to see your pictures!
x1 year ago
Karen: What a lovely idea!1 year ago
Sasa: Hehe, my best friend just told me that no one asks her as many questions about everything as I do…1 year ago
Kelly: I. Love. This. I’ve always thought that most of us take our pictures at the wrong moments for the most part. I found a random polariod that one of my little cousins took from my grandma’s staircase, looking down at her living room. In it, you can see the tops of several family members’ heads, some plates of jello, ham and potatoes, a sliver of the highway and the lake outside, and a scattering of baby toys on the ground. I slipped it into my pocket to keep because THAT is how I’ll always remember her house. The posed pictures just don’t cut it.1 year ago
Ruth@GraceLaced: LOVE this post. Love that you can articulate that which drives you. I’m amused because I posted a recipe today and chose to use pics of the process with all the “junk” that always adorns my kitchen island: legos, cap guns, stuffed animals, mail…It was fun to post it as it is. Don’t know if you do this, but when I look back at my sweetest memories, they usually don’t include the amazingly decorated birthday cake, or a fantastically clean house; rather, I remember smells, everyday noises, the comforting routine of a sleepy cup of coffee. It’s nothing glossy, ever. Would love to join in on the documentation.1 year ago
Karen: Fabulous idea!
Tiffany…. I like the idea of the “daily highlight” journal too!1 year ago
anne: I totally agree. Love the everyday details of life. And love to learn about others…1 year ago
Shannalee: I love the way you wrote about this, and I totally relate. There is beauty and value in the everyday, and kudos to you for celebrating that, both in the way you interact with your friends and through this project. Would love to peek into a week of your life!1 year ago
Suzy: What a cool idea. I’ve heard of documenting (photographically) a day in your life, but a week provides much more breadth.
I too am completely fascinated with how people live their lives, their hundreds of tiny choices day to day, what makes them THEM. (Just a hint as to why I love biographies so.) Perhaps I will attempt it, too!1 year ago
Melanie: I am going to follow Ali and do the project. I have done the 25 days of Christmas and loved it.
She does set the bar high. She is so talented.1 year ago
katie: mmmm. . . .brown bread toast slathered in melty salty butter. . . my boulangerie now does bread with fig baked into it on the weekends. have become addicted. glad you think of me at my breakfast bar, petal! xoxoxoxo k1 year ago