Rosemary Sundays: a picture is worth a thousand words

so i randomly started looking up polaroids. then i found something on Mental Floss that made me feel kinda shitty. sad. happy. and glad that it was a hot day- and i couldn’t draw -or else i wouldn’t have found this post. it's kinda old news but good stuff.

He Took a Polaroid Every Day, Until the Day He Died written on May 21 by Chris Higgins.

chris found a website that had polaroid pictures dating March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. there was no contact info or anything on the site. just a bunch of polaroids according to date. he couldn’t figure out who the photographer was, so he did some research and later discovered that the photographer was Jamie Livingston. Jaime took a polaroid a day for 18 years until his birthday October 25, 1997, the day he died of cancer. he photographed his life to the very end.

- Jaime Livinginston born october 25, 1956 - died october 25, 2007
- New York based photographer, filmaker and circus performer.
- started his 'polaroid a day' photodiary while at Bard College.
- he took a polaroid a day in hopes to one day organize a collection.
- some polaroids are missing 6,697 polaroids remain.
- after his death his friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid put together his collection of polaroids. something Jamie would have wanted to do.
- Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid organized an exhibit at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College called "JAMIE LIVINGSTON. PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997", which opened in 2007.
- the exhibit took up a 7 x 120 foot space.
- Jaime's best friend Hugh Crawford put his collection online with the intention of not being found... at least not yet until Chris Higgins found it on May 20.

see Jaime Livingston's polaroid collection at Photo of the Day

read more about the Jaime Livingston project at Only the Blog Knows Brooklyn

listen to the Spark episode hosted by Nora Young about Jaime Livingston on CBC Radio.

“For the last seven years I have been taking what has come to be known as the POD, or Photo of the Day. This is my way of keeping a diary. The subject matter varies from portraits, to still life, to landscapes, my big toe, a flag pole, people i meet, those i’m with, anything i might encounter at work or play. Whatever the mood mood it varies. whats important is that it represents an instant in that day which i remember foreever onward. with some photos i can re-live entire days just from a glance, others bring me back only to the moment.”

- Jamie Livingston, a letter written to the Polaroid Corporation in 1986.

i looked at the whole collection and it seems to me like Jaime lived a happy life. he was always with his friends and family and apparently traveled a lot. the last year of his life is especially hard. you see him come in and out of the hospital so you know something is wrong. he has a staples on his head. eventually loses his hair from chemo. the last month of his life is especially sad but i’m pretty sure just as happy. we see that jamie is back at the hospital surrounded by the ones he loves. on october 5, there is a polaroid of an engagment ring, an indication that his time is possibly short. two days later he is married and his wife is in white. on october 24th a friend is playing the guitar for him while jaime lays sleeping. the last polaroid is the last day of his life. i can't even look at it. some polaroids i like: