Jamie Livingston

Jamie Livingston was born October 25, 1956 and lived in New York. He had many professions such as a film maker, circus performer and photographer. On March 31st 1979, Jamie was given a Polaroid SX-70 camera by a friend. On this day he decided that every day for the rest of his life we would take a picture a day for the rest of his life. He did this for 18 years, and died on his birthday in 1997.

Although he was true to his word, unfortunately some of the photographs were lost. The 6,697 photographs that remain were organised and categorized by his two friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid and placed in a exhibit called "Photo of the Day", at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College.

I chose Jamie Livingston as one of my chosen photographers as I was inspired by his drive and dedication. Capturing one moment of his day for 18 years is inspirational; it allows us to see who he was and what he truly cared about, especially the people that mattered to him. The majority of his work was of the same few people, suggesting they were close friends or family members. After looking through his work I feel I can link it in with my own, and use the idea of capturing a moment everyday on camera in my own work.

This image captures the true events of two guitarists. It suggests their passion for music and i think is successfully portrayed in this image. The blurriness in the image suggests movements being made. The man in the white shirts appears to be moving back and forth while he plays. This is what suggests his passion of music. I think Jamie captured this moment as he felt inspired by the people within the image. They don’t seem distracted by the things around them and just focus on the music they play.

The cameras within this image suggest that Jamie or someone he knows has a fascination with cameras or photography. The way in which this image is captured works well to make the image unique to other images of cameras. The colouring of the photograph also adds to the quality of the image, making it seem old fashioned, which it is. I think Jamie captured this image to portray his own love for cameras.

The four people that have been captured show both closeness and warmth towards one another. This suggests that they are friends of Jamie’s, and are important to him. The girl who isn’t looking in to the camera shows a lot of affection to the man she’s standing next to. This could suggest that they are a couple; the glass shown at the bottom of the image, in the woman’s hand is also suggestive. It’s made to look like a party or celebration is going on at the time in which this photograph was taken.

I really like this image as it really captures what’s going on. The man in the photo is unaware that his being photograph, which works well and adds to the photograph. He appears to be busy and concentrating hard on what his doing. It appears that his working on something, but the cigarette in his hand suggests that his in a non working environment such as at home.