Heroes: Jeff Harris

I am not going to begin this, my first post in months, with an apology. Micro-blogging (Twitter specifically) is a hit for a reason. Long format blogging can be hard to schedule when life gets messy. But I digress.

I want to talk about the power of photography. As documentation. As mirror. As insight. As a vehicle for shared experience.

I have spent many years working with different photographers and types of photography. It brings me great joy to continue my craft as a costume designer and to study humanity and urban ecology through it. I am fascinated by the commonplace and day-to-day goings on of people. I find them very revealing. Not just the concept of ritual but the functional and aesthetic choices in my own life, of my community, culture and other cultures too.

I love photography because it transmits so much information wordlessly. Expression doesn't end where words end: it just gets richer. Visuals create a vocabulary that picks up the slack and at least for me, shares intangibles in meaningful and easily absorbed ways. Two people can be from different walks of life and look at the same photograph and have that experience between them. As Edward de Bono has said "Once you have seen something you cannot 'unsee' it. Your thinking, choices, decisions are determined by what you have seen." It creeps in.

This is what I have to say about Toronto based photographer Jeff Harris's work: It creeps in. Powerfully and with shrewdness. Jeff has been engaged in an ongoing project where he's had his picture taken-either as a self portrait or by a friend-everyday since January 1, 1999. Think about that. A picture a day, every day for ten years. Thats 3,804 photos up until May 31, 2009 according to his website. A link on his website reveals a subtext:

"We can't pretend like this is just another day! This is THE day! This is TODAY! We have never been given today before! We hold it all in our hands! Go find a calendar and look at the date - whatever day it is, realize this: this day will never come again!"- Andrew W.K.

I had the pleasure of meeting Jeff through my partner Steve Ferrara two years ago. He is immensely likeable in person. He grilled me about the origins of a framed photo of R.E.M that hung on the wall in my old studio. "When was this photo taken?". Absent mindedly I responded-with the wrong information. He knows *a lot* about the band and as I recall he schooled me on the correct answer. It has been a pleasure to read his website, marvel at the story behind his photos and get updates about his goings on through it and his lens. On July 3, 2008 Steve took a photo of Jeff on our rooftop.

Recently, Jeff has battled pelvic cancer. But he did not suspend his project during this time. Private struggles were made public and they were equally as physical and physiological as emotional. Having watched and witnessed family members fight cancer over the years, I admit to being triggered by the sheer raw-ness of his life's recordings. In April he had major surgery to remove his cancer. To say that the images taken during these days are hard to look at is an understatement. The camera was there as a witness to the Miracle of Modern Medicine and these images bring closer what it means to be flesh and bone. To be human. Its vulnerability, its complexity and preciousness. And that I just can't get out of my head.

Happy Birthday Jeff Harris. I don't want to miss another day and another opportunity to say thank you.

Photo credit: Taken May 13, 2009 by Penny Harris from www.jeffharris.org