ADay.org Aims to Inspire Generations to Come by Capturing One Day in Our World

On July 24th, 2010 tens of thousands of people captured a video snipped of their life that day and uploaded it to YouTube where director Kevin Macdonald and executive producer Ridley Scott edited the lot of them together into a 95min feature film — which you can now watch for free. On May 15th, it’s the photographer’s turn.

The website ADay.org, backed by many well known personalities such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, is encouraging professional photographers and point-and-shoot jockeys alike to get out their cameras on May 15th and snap a photo of life in their world. Similar projects, including the one mentioned above and another from 2003 called “A Day in the Life of Sweden,” have been attempted; but the scale and popularity of ADay.org should make it the most impressive yet.

Jeppe Wikstrom, co-founder of ADay.org and leader of the 2003 Sweden version, explains the reason behind this world-wide call to photograph our lives:

Pictures from our life are one of the thing that we cherish the most, and if you don’t preserve them they’re gone. . . We somehow think everyone in Africa is starving and we assume that everyone in China rides a bike.

Wikstrom is quoted in WIRED ambitiously calling the project an “update” to the famous 1955 global photography exhibit “A Family of Man” by Edward Steichen; only this time around all of the photos — the good, the bad, and the ugly — will be available online for the whole world to see.

ADay.org is also planning a global exhibit featuring some of the best submissions, alongside a book they will be producing for those who are interested. If you want your region, city, home, or life represented for future generations — and we hope that you do — be sure to snap a photo on May 15th and follow the instructions on their website.

Discussion