Countdown to 2025: 100 Days of Photos
September 23, 2024—December 31, 2024
100 days. 100 moments. 100 intentional attempts to find something—anything—of beauty, especially amidst rather unsettling times this fall. Instead of focusing on everything beyond my control, I focused inward, training my eye on the small moments of joy and on the ordinary representations of beauty. I noted the changing of seasons, the (many) loaves of bread fresh from my oven, the late afternoon light streaming inside, the sun-dappled trees greeting me as I pulled into my parking spot at work. I captured moments on my walks—trees, leaves, roadside decorations, the ever-changing skies. I captured road trips and day trips, family dinners, holidays, and birthdays. I pulled out my HO-scale figures to create miniature scenes when I felt the need to escape the enormity of real life. And scattered throughout are moments of the mundane and ordinary: the bandage from the flu/COVID shots repurposed on a wooden artist figure, an abstract image created by corrugated packing material, the packed bags for a holiday visit with family, the over-the-counter medications to combat a Thanksgiving cold.
In the penultimate frame of this set, I noticed that at 4:50p, the sky was a bit less dark than it had been in the days prior. The days were growing longer, minute by minute. And I snapped the shot with my phone, reminding myself that more light was on its way—minute by imperceptible minute. And maybe that’s what a daily photo practice reminds me: that beauty, hope, and joy abound—moment by imperceptible moment.
Each photo, when viewed as a solo piece, is really nothing extraordinary—just a moment I decided to capture. The individual moments aren’t necessarily anything special—but together, they represent 100 days—100 moments—of a life. And with that, I’m reminded of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s lines from “Each and All”:
All are needed by each one;
nothing is fair or good alone. . . .
I yielded myself to the perfect whole.