It would be easy for anyone looking at this project to assume that it is about contemporary culture’s fascination with reality TV, fast-paced MTV-style editing, short attention spans and a snapshot aesthetic.  However, the motivation behind the project was actually more personal and practical.  I wanted to be present in my own life, to come out of my head for a moment or two every hour and take note of where I was in the physical world, to become aware of my feet on the ground.  I saw the project as a meditation; a ritual; a commitment added to a less committed life; an experiment.

This photographic project is also about the unrelenting presence of the camera.  At times, the images allude to the nature of photography, but mostly they are a strict and plain account of the hours.

    Over the course of 18 months, I found I became less self-conscious, as the vast number of images overshadowed the minute details of my face.  Lines became less interesting.  Every moment represented in the photographs, important or mundane, has the same weight, and emotion is flat.  There is no judgment.  This quality emerges markedly in video format.  The person in the photographs is me, but my image is a translucent impression fused with half-eaten edamame, highway signs or a computer screen.  Over time, I realize this body of work has become less a self-portrait and more a document of anyone’s life.

    This process, to become mindful for a few moments on the hour, has produced more than

20,000 images.