Photo of the Day, by Bard Alumnus Jamie Livingston On View in October
ANNANDALE-ON-HUDSON, N.Y.—“Photo of the Day” was the photography project and obsession of Bard alumnus James “Jamie” Livingston ’79, a New York–based photographer and filmmaker who died on October 25, 1997. From 1979 until the day of his death, Livingston recorded his life, and the life around him, every single day, with one Polaroid image that was then imprinted with a stamp and date.
Photo of the Day is on view at Bard College from Saturday, October 13, through Sunday, October 28, in the Bertelsmann Campus Center. A reception will be held on Saturday, October 20, from 4:00 to 7:00 p.m. Gallery hours: Sunday through Thursday, from 8:00–1:00 a.m.; Friday and Saturday, from 8:00–2:00 a.m. This exhibition has been organized as part of the Jamie Livingston Project and is jointly presented with Bard’s Office of Alumni/ae Affairs.
“The photos stand alone as art, but the exhibition, in total, is an overwhelming and wildly powerful viewing experience,” says Risa Mickenberg, one of the friends of Livingston who organized the exhibition. “Personal, specific, and an inimitable record of street life, humanity, and daily, ordinary joy are shown in these images.”
The exhibition—a rare and exuberant record of daily life in and around New York City from 1979 until 1997—is organized in a chronological grid, by date, so viewers can see a vertical representation of dates (January 1st from 1979 until 1997, then January 2nd from 1979 until 1997, and so on).
“Jamie can be remembered for precisely the things he himself wanted to capture and remember: daily ordinary joy,” explains Mickenberg. “Photo of the Day is a work of light, color, laughter, pain, travel, beauty, wonton soup, afternoons, coffee, hanging out, love, life in its entirety. It’s the masterpiece we all create. It’s just that Jamie thought to take its picture.”
In addition to the exhibition, the other mission of the Jamie Livingston Project is to create a Bard scholarship in Livingston’s honor. Both the exhibition and scholarship are entirely underwritten by friends of Jamie Livingston.
For further information, call the Office of Alumni/ae Affairs at 845-758-7406. For directions, call Bertelsmann Campus Center Information Desk at 845-758-7095.
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(9/13/07)
To download high-resolution (300 dpi jpeg) press photos, click on thumbnail images below:
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[Editor’s Note: Contact information for the exhibition organizers: Linda Schaffer, 646-637-5002, limba@aol.com; Betsy Reid, 917-767-4837, betsy.reid@verizon.net.