Myself, Then

8.14.4, 2004 ©jwl

As part of my series of year long projects I tried to take a self portrait everyday between April 2004 and April 2005. These projects are completely rigid and seemingly disciplinary acts with the idea to keep me active in a project without losing focus over time. They are successful at times and not in others, but for the most part I generate work in a completist's sense.

This project of self portraits moved from my attempts at understanding the act of portraiture from the sitter's position to a more direct portrait of myself. If I didn't make a portrait on a given day I was to write a page of whatever spilled onto the page. Some are banal and some are extraordinary. All of them describe me in a particular time and place.

I found this image while looking over the work today. It was taken 4 years ago today.