I met first-time mommy Lila at an event in San Francisco and she told me that the 52 project was the best thing she did as a new mom.
The motto is “A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in (fill in the year),” and although you might think, aww man, I wish I started this in January, I’d like to remind you that any 52-week period makes up a year. We start school in September, our babies turn new numbers whenever their birthdays are, and we pay taxes in April. Today is just as good a day as any to embrace a new practice.
Lila’s kid Grayson is a year old, and she identified one favorite photo of him every week for the year. The project is “hosted” by Jodi, the blogger behind practicingsimplicity, who has a little link widget on her weekly articles so that other participants can share their weekly posts.
In this post about the 52 Project, Jodi describes a bit more: it’s about documenting childhood, savoring the short phases, and practicing the art of portrait-taking.
Portraits are about the subject taking center stage, though they don’t have to be head-on. It is about framing the photo intentionally, capturing exactly the aspects you want to capture, rather than a happenstance snapshot.
Related: project 365, which is not about your child, but about your life, and your point of view. Bonus: there are apps to help you remember to select or take a picture each day to be your project 365 picture.
[All photos supplied by Lila from lingeringdaydreams.com, all rights reserved]