Year 3, Day 50: Main Gallery, CalArts – captured using a macro lens. This was a Wednesday, when musicians play in the Main Gallery (the shadows are the musicians). | Photo: Maija Burnett
Year 3, Day 194: Rose Street, Venice | Photo: Maija Burnett
With the rise of mobile technology and the availability of editing apps on phones, “photo a day” projects have become more commonplace for artists who wish to capture something from each day.
Animator and School of Film/Video faculty member Maija Burnett began her own Project 365 in late February 2011 and continues to contribute daily photos—taken on her iPhone 4—to a community of photo-a-day snappers on Facebook.
“It can be daunting at first, but in time, one begins to really hone one’s eye and develop a sense of how and when to capture a moment,” says Burnett via email. “It is insanely inspiring to see everyone’s photos each day. Each person in the group, no doubt, influences my own work.”
Burnett says that certain themes in her photos have emerged: solitary figures, bodies in motion—sometimes captured directly, other times in silhouette or shadow. She rarely posts a photo that isn’t edited in some way because editing encourages her creative sense. She explains:
Sometimes it’s only after manipulating photos in apps that I actually find that ‘kernel’ of the image that I want to convey.
One of the lessons I’ve learned during this process is that instinct is so important: trusting one’s instinct in the brief moment one captures an image, and then trusting again when editing and transforming it.
Since the photos Burnett posts to Facebook are only visible to her friends, Burnett has also posted a selection on Behance and recently started an Instagram account. Above are 30 photos from Burnett’s Project 365.
