A Day in the Life of a Day in the Life November 2002 by David Friend

“On October 22, 2002, at 00:01 hours, a team of 125 of the world’s greatest civilian and military photographers will be poised at 125 locations around the globe to launch…A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces.”
--Press release

“October 22 through November 4, 2002, A Day in the Life of Africa will be on display in Vanderbilt Hall at [New York City’s] Grand Central Terminal.”
--Invitation to exhibition opening

For three decades now (beginning with Life magazine’s special issue “One Day in the Life of America” in 1974), photojournalists, with an abundance of film and fanfare, have been dispatched across a common swath of real estate to cover a common theme. Ringmasters Rick Smolan and David Cohen, either in tandem or in twain, have helped navigate many of these photo safaris—part class reunion for shooters and editors, part multi-media extravaganza, part bumper crop for publisher HarperCollins. (In the interest of full disclosure, I must say here that on occasion I have leant my services as an editor. I confess, as well, to having spearheaded photographic team efforts that smacked of a similar, and unapologetically lofty, sense of mission.)

Recently, however, there seems to be a proliferation of such expeditions. In the course of two days last month, I received announcements about two new ventures--A Day in the Life of Africa and A Day in the Life of the United States Armed Forces--along with an invitation to the Washington D.C. exhibit Photo du Jour: A Picture-A-Day Journey Through the First Year of the New Millennium (showcasing the impressively executed 365-day experiment by photographer David Hume Kennerly.) Then an e-mail came my way from photo-project-mayven Matthew Naythons: Would I like to serve as one of the picture editors on the Armed Forces shoot? The very next day, I was taken aback while browsing the Net, only to come across a list of comparable projects, all rather far along in the planning and fund-raising stages.

As a public service, I thought it prudent to share this working roster with the readers of The Digital Journalist.

Spring 2003
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF ENDOSCOPY.
To mark the 150th anniversary of the endoscope, 125 of the field’s top medical photographers, armed with fiber-optic digital equipment, will probe their own inner recesses, producing an unprecedented array of imagery of the most intimate nooks and crannies of the human body. Local anesthesia highly recommended.

Summer 2003
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF LOG DECAY.
Environmental scientists often devote years to studying the decomposition of a single log, examining individual samples in minute detail. In this first-of-a-kind picture-appraisal, 125 nature, wildlife and still-life photographers will fan out across our nation’s forests to take a continental “snapshot” of fallen timber over the course of a single Sunday. Weather permitting.

Fall 2003
A DAY IN THE LIFE OF EUROPA.
In this unprecedented joint venture between NASA and the European Space Agency, many of the profession’s most annoying and/or self-absorbed photographers will be transported to the nether reaches of the Solar System to survey icy Europa, the fourth largest satellite of the planet Jupiter. Note: Due to space constraints, each photographer will be limited to one assistant, one location scout, and one stylist.

Winter 2003
24 HOURS IN THE LIFE OF THE FETUS
Project organizers will give mini-disposable cameras to 125 pre-born shutterbabes, in utero.

Spring 2004
A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF LINGERIE
The World Wide Web is the perfect platform for this interactive “peep-show,” linking photographers, models and legions of on-line exhibitionists and voyeurs.

Unscheduled, 2004-5:
24 HOURS IN A PAIR OF MANOLO BLAHNIKS…
…and, boy, will your ankles be killing you!

A NIGHT IN THE LIFE OF INSOMNIACS

24 HOURS IN THE LIFE OF A PASTA SALAD
(while it congeals and turns brown in a deli-counter case)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF EVERY PERSON WITH HIS OR HER OWN 24/7 WEB-CAM OR REALITY-TV SHOW

15 MINUTES IN THE LIFE OF PRO BASKETBALL
(Limited to the 4th Quarter Only—Because That’s All That Matters Anyway)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF GUYS NAMED SAL OR SOL

LOX AROUND THE CLOCK
(A Global View of Smoked Salmon)

360 DEGREES AND NO ESCAPE!
(Ordinary people around the world--as viewed from hidden security cameras)

A DAY IN THE LIFE OF SPONSOR’S-NAME-AND-LOGO-TO-BE-INSERTED HERE

© David Friend
Contributing Editor
dfriend@vf.com


David Friend is Vanity Fair’s editor of creative development. In September he won an Emmy for best non-fiction television special for his role as executive producer of the CBS program “9/11,” which aired in 140 countries.