Photographer and filmmaker Jamie Livingston took a photo (Polaroids) a day, every single day for 18 years from March 31, 1979 till October 25, 1997. The result is a breathtaking and poignant visual account of a man’s life that covered the casual miscellanea of everyday life to momentous events like his marriage and battle with cancer.

There is even a photo on the day he died, October 25, 1997, which ironically was his birthday. The sheer magnitude of his work was finally brought to light by friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid whose labor of love saw Hugh spending many nights scanning Jamie’s images which totaled 6,697 Polaroids.

The effort has paid off and Jamie’s story has been dugged more than 8000 times (and counting), and he now has a page on wikipedia. Traffic to the website of his project was so overwhelming it crashed. It’s still not up as I write this. Please leave a comment if you manage to log on to the site. You can, however, read more about Jamie on mentalfloss and Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn.

As posted on Only The Blog Knows Brooklyn, what makes Jamie’s Photo of The Day project so moving is best summed up by a comment on metafilter.

“I had to think a little bit about why this is so stirring. This is not a technical achievement, nor an endeavor that requires an inaccessible skill set. This is one thing, done once a day. Something so spare and ordinary, just taken to extraordinary lengths. A simple thing: whatever struck his fancy on a given day - just capture one thing on film. Simple.

“I know a lot of people try to do this on Flickr, but this is strikingly different in many respects. This isn’t a collection of forced poses or composed shots or juxtapositions, he isn’t looking for something funny, weird, or ironic. I find myself thinking I should try this, but give up within days because I’d try to wait until something interesting happened. That’s me not appreciating the ordinary, or trying to force it, and not having the discipline to just do something on principle. These photos are as simple as memories. They don’t always make sense, they don’t always fit into some grand theme or design. Here is a memory. Here is another. All you need to know is: this was then, on this date. This happened, I was there. Do you remember?

“Nothing seems framed here. You don’t feel as if he is trying to sell you anything about himself. I like to think that the people in his life probably questioned this hobby or wondered what purpose it could ever serve - especially in those days before such a scheme could bring you internet glory. There was no market for this kind of thing. Who would care? Why keep at it? No one will see it. That camera isn’t even portable. The resolution is terrible. Why bother?

“I think we react to this because it is so rare. A refreshingly simple thing, devoid of polish or fanfare, suddenly set in front of us by chance. It doesn’t ask anything of you. You take what you will.”

via chris glass.