Why. Stop. Time.

Memory. History. Expression. Animation. Time. Visual. Documentation. Art.

The parameters of my project are very simple – each day I take photos of something or someone in my life. From these photos I create a short stop motion film. I then choose no more than 15 words, usually less, to describe each day based on people, places, activities, and emotions. My goal is to create a single stop motion entry every day for a year.

After musing on the idea for months, occasionally creating a stop motion project here and there, I decided to finally start my project in the summer of 2009 at the behest of many friends. After a stressful spring in which I lost my precious grandmother, I had both the time and motivation to truly begin. My grandmother’s death really pushed me forward. One of my most favorite things has always been looking through photos and she shared that with me. In quiet moments alone together she was always willing to riffle through her old photos and tell me of a life lived before my time, of people and places I hardly knew, of our very loving family’s lake house history.

I was, and still am, torn apart by the fact that I didn’t start this project in time to capture my grandmother’s last happy moments with our family. Every day the urge to document the things and people that I care about grew stronger. Honestly, I was drowning in my grief until I picked up my camera and decided I had to to do better.

So, I hope this will be a sort of visual diary of this year of my life. I want to slow down the time. Appreciate, document, and focus on my life in a way I haven’t before. Too busy making memories and taking photos this summer to get the website going, I am finally, at the constant questioning of my ever cooperative and curious friends, posting. I write on this, my 99th day of shooting.

At last, we’re on our way.

Love,Claudette

“I’m up in the woods, I’m down on my mind,
I’m building a still to slow down the time” – Bon Iver