Just A Day

I struggled today,creatively. I’ve been struggling a little with the idea of today for quite a while, knowing that it’s The Day.

Coming home from a morning’s photography a few weeks ago I was introduced to the OneDay.org concept by the love of my life, full of enthusiasm and inspiration. I struggled immediately to feel a connection to the idea of joining photographers worldwide to document a day in the life.

My work, I now realize is deliberately avoiding the distinction of the present. Even though I have a photography project that revolves around the documentation of “A Day” I found the idea of making today – of any other days – a more important one than any other a  difficult concept.

Jackie was so enthusiastic and encouraged by the project. I wanted to feel the same, so that not only would I document my day I would play the role of a co-ordinator and leader of a team of people who would build a portrait of our city, Fort Lauderdale. I felt immediately that it ran counter to my usual approach to photography and wanted to rise above it, to match J’s enthusiasm and vision. I felt I had let her amazing energy down somehow by not feeling the same way.

I’ve felt so disappointed in myself for failing to bring my best to this day.  It was a day lost in going to a project launch, and in making my old car a little safer, and trying not to worry about money. It didn’t feel like a day to document every day activities. It didn’t feel like a day to put my own experience in the frame. It didn’t feel like a day I should make the ordinary extraordinary.

Perhaps though, that is the point. In many ways I failed to summon the engagement with the greater photographic picture, envisioned by the oneday.org visionaries. But I now realize I don’t take my pictures to create a greater, enlarged project. Hopefully I can take the best of my day’s photos and upload them to the project knowing that capture an ordinary photographer’s day. I didn’t rise to the occasion, or create a bigger vision within the shots.

But that was my day. Just an ordinary day. It rained. The sun came out. The birds sang. The plants grew. My love grew stronger and that’s the bigger picture. No photo can capture that.

AR.