On the morning of January 1st 2010 I picked up my camera and declared I was starting a 365 project with our daughter, Priya.
Being heavily pregnant and an unmotivated procrastinator at heart, I secretly suspected it would turn out to be a ‘365 missing 360’ project. I picked up my camera, snapped a photo and had no idea how addictive this project would become. Over the next week I came to realise taking a photo a day of my daughter was one of the best ideas I’d ever had. Firstly, I’ll be honest; during my pregnancy, I’d become somewhat frazzled and neglectful, the days were slipping by in a blur of eat, sleep, change nappy, watch Pocahontas, lather, rinse, repeat. As I started carrying my camera around poised and waiting for the moment to snap our ‘photo of the day’ I found myself watching Priya in a new way. I decided to document what I saw here.
When our son was born on February 13th, we began the project with him.
Doing the 365 project gave me reason to stop and really SEE my children. Really, really take wonder in this time. To document the delight that is overflowing in motherhood and parenting. To take the time to stop and say – this, this is what I want to remember always.
Being a mum is often hard. It’s long hours, it’s physically and emotionally demanding but what’s more than that – it’s very difficult to quantify or see the work we do. Often at the end of the day the only tangible thing I have of hours past is a huge mess and pile of washing.
This project gave me the commitment and time to reflect that – THIS is what I’ve been doing. I’ve been raising these incredible people and here are the little moments and letters of love to prove it. I don’t really need a photo to see my children, but I really need the committment and reason to stop and look for the delight.
We will be continuing the project with 366 (leap year) 2012.