91 Days – A Shared Art Project by Stephen Voss

I can’t tell you how I heard about it, but sometime in the middle of March I found out about one of the coolest personal projects I’ve heard of in a long time. Stephen Voss is a freelance photographer living in Washington DC who has done work for a number of newspapers, magazines, and organizations. He decided he would undertake a personal project to shoot a photo in his backyard every day from March 20 to June 20, 2010 using a 4×5 view camera with a Polaroid back on Fuji instant film. In and of itself this is a very cool idea, but he decided he would take it one step further. That one step takes it from being a cool project to something very special: at his own expense and effort he would offer those photos to the first 91 people that signed up and requested them.

Here’s the video he created when he introduced the project…

91 days from Stephen Voss on Vimeo.

The website he created especially for the project is 91-days.org. Additionally he has been posting updates of the images on this page.

He listed three reasons why he was undertaking this project:

1. To try a little experiment in sharing some original art.
2. To integrate a little bit of time for creativity into each day within a fixed set of constraints.
3. To do some honest, nothing-expected-in-return gift-giving to a random subset of people.

And that’s it. Nothing more except perhaps a mention on the recipient’s blog. Wow.

So I sent him my address, and last Saturday I received an envelope in the mail. It was a padded envelope with plenty of postage, and the print inside was absolutely stunning. He could have just tossed it in the envelope and sent it along, but he took the time to include a very nice handwritten note. Here’s a shot of the photo taken in my backyard.

The note…

Hi Jeff,
Thanks for being a part of 91 days. This was a fleeting picture – squirrels dug the flower out later this day, so the picture’s about all that’s left. Hope you enjoy the print.
Stephen

To say I enjoy the print would be an understatement. I’m in the process deciding the best way to mount or frame the print so it can take a place on my wall where I can see it daily. I want to enjoy it, but more importantly I want it to remind me that sometimes good and talented people can give without wanting or expecting anything in return. I think that’s a good reminder we can all use from time to time. I know I can.

For myself and the other 90 recipients of these prints… Thank you Stephen.