Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 12.5 years

September 4, 2012 7:38 AM

Photographer Noah Kalina (previously, previouslier) has taken a photograph of himself everyday for the last 12.5 years. In 2006, he released the first video showing six years of the perils of time on the human form. Well, the human face. It went viral. The Simpsons parodied it (alt). Time named it one of YouTube's 50 best videos. The work in progress comprises of 4514 photos (so far).
posted by guiseroom (29 comments total)

MiFi permalinks are not period pieces and now the url will mislead the masses into thinking someone has taken a photo of himself for 125 years. Excellent.
posted by guiseroom at 7:42 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

o o
 -

posted by DU at 7:46 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

SPOILER: He's got a beard now.
posted by Curious Artificer at 7:48 AM on September 4, 2012 [4 favorites]

Still not much of a smiler, I see.
posted by key lime guy at 7:53 AM on September 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

Boy, his bad hair has been kicking his ass for 12.5 years.
posted by nevercalm at 8:11 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

So much more handsome with the beard. Great project.
posted by ColdChef at 8:12 AM on September 4, 2012

T-Minus 3 years 23 days until he becomes Zak Galifianakis.
posted by gwint at 8:14 AM on September 4, 2012

I like to pause randomly just to scope out what's in the background, and in one picture I'm pretty sure are 3"x3" black and white copies of all these pictures covering a wall.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:17 AM on September 4, 2012

His war vs. the encroaching beard has been lost!
posted by moonbiter at 8:17 AM on September 4, 2012

Also, in later pictures, the ones right after he gets a hair cut, he looks like Matthew Broderick.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:19 AM on September 4, 2012

Best frame.
posted by Partial Law at 8:20 AM on September 4, 2012 [5 favorites]

My rapidly graying beard feels like part of the in crowd now.
posted by DigDoug at 8:25 AM on September 4, 2012

Kind of sad.

Also, needs to be edited to stabilize the face in the middle of the frame. Otherwise fantastic.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:27 AM on September 4, 2012

I'm disappointed that animators for The Simpsons version failed to realize that the clothes and background for every frame needs to be different. They could have packed in hundreds more jokes.
posted by rh at 8:33 AM on September 4, 2012 [2 favorites]

I wonder if it was really every day.

In the 2000 set, he has a bunch of empty frames that presumably represent missed days. If you delve into the "365 project" community at all (people taking a photo a day for one year) then one of the first reassurances you'll see is that it's okay to miss a day here and there, everybody does and it's hard not to.

My one-year halfway point is this Friday. I haven't missed any days yet, but it's not easy and some days I definitely feel that "yet" is the operative word.
posted by cribcage at 8:34 AM on September 4, 2012

Eye cream Noah.

Eye Cream.
posted by The Whelk at 8:37 AM on September 4, 2012

Also, needs to be edited to stabilize the face in the middle of the frame. Otherwise fantastic.
posted by blue_beetle at 8:27 AM on September 4 [+] [!]
I disagree. I like how it jumps, I like how that means you can tell sometimes his head is hanging a little low, or maybe raised a little higher. It gives the video emotion and rhythm.
posted by FirstMateKate at 8:42 AM on September 4, 2012

And with guest appearances
posted by epo at 8:54 AM on September 4, 2012

Around halfway though that it occurred to me that these "picture a day" compilations would be a great way to do a prank video where there's suddenly a scary image + loud noise that startles people who are zoned out staring at a dude's eyes.

Then I spent the second half of the video on edge and paranoid that this was such a prank.
posted by ghharr at 9:02 AM on September 4, 2012

It seems that 50 percent of all Americans who own a camera of one or another thype do this sort of thing.
posted by Postroad at 9:03 AM on September 4, 2012 [1 favorite]

And with guest appearances

The biggest "celebrity" in those pictures is the Burger King.
posted by guiseroom at 9:07 AM on September 4, 2012

Similar project, far more poignant
posted by sleevener at 9:20 AM on September 4, 2012 [5 favorites]

'Unresting death, a whole day nearer now,
Making all thought impossible but how
And where and when I shall myself die.
Arid interrogation: yet the dread
Of dying, and being dead,
Flashes afresh to hold and horrify. '
posted by robself at 10:48 AM on September 4, 2012

Noah also took the very popular wedding photo of Mark Zuckerberg and his wife earlier this year.
posted by lunalaguna at 11:51 AM on September 4, 2012

He looks, to me, like a real-life version of a South Park character.
posted by owtytrof at 1:13 PM on September 4, 2012

If you watch it backwards, it's the story of a bearded photographer who becomes a wide-eyed kid with a webcam.
posted by myrrh at 1:38 PM on September 4, 2012

I call prank. This was actually the long-lost David Lynch directed episode of Northern Exposure. Joel gets some bad moose meet from Maggie and has a bad trip.
posted by sapere aude at 3:19 PM on September 4, 2012

I felt like he'd get older, then younger, then older, then younger. Related to the hair, I think
posted by ThatCanadianGirl at 6:16 PM on September 4, 2012

I just watched 1/3 of it and skipped ahead to about 2/3rds and was like "whoa, Zack Galifinakas".

My first daughter is due in 2 weeks. I wonder if I can talk my wife into going along with me and taking a picture of her every day from birth till she's 18.

I hope Noah keeps this up till the day he dies.
posted by daHIFI at 11:01 AM on September 5, 2012