New years resolutions are hard to make and hard to keep. I've never felt particularly inventive when it comes down to them (I mean, every year get healthy, stop procrastinating...), so it gets kind of dull and they never happen. This year however I stumbled across something quite interesting.

I'm sure many of you have heard of it, and I'm sure some of you will have done it. I thought I'd post about it here as it raises some interesting questions, and from looking at past years, can really help an artist learn.

I'm talking about Project 365 (in this year's case, 365+1). Featured as a tutorial on Photojojo, Project 365: How to Take a Photo a Day and See Your Life in a Whole New Way, offers the artist an opportunity to really live a visual lifestyle for a whole year (or as long as you like.

Taylor McKnight, the pioneer of this project, says that it's well worth doing and gives the following reasons why it's worth a try:

"Imagine being able to look back at any day of your year and recall what you did, who you met, what you learned… (Often we find it hard to remember what we did just yesterday or even last night, let alone a whole year ago!)

Your year-long photo album will be an amazing way to document your travels and accomplishments, your haircuts and relationships. Time moves surprisingly fast.

Taking a photo a day will make you a better photographer. Using your camera every day will help you learn its limits. You will get better at composing your shots, you’ll start to care about lighting, and you’ll become more creative with your photography when you’re forced to come up with something new every single day." (McKnight, T. (2007). Project 365)

The full article gives tips on how to keep motivated and reasons why McKnight decided to try it. There are also plenty of roject%20365"groups and people blogging about the project to keep you going.

There is a flipside to the argument that you could end up with quantity over quality, but as McKnight says, using the camera every day will help you learn what's good and what's not.

To be honest this could be done with any medium, last year I tried to spend a month doing one sketch a day. It's whatever's best for you (and if you have the time!)

I'd love to hear if you decide to join in. I'm tracking my progress on my personal blog and hopefully this will prove a very interesting visual journey

Also I realise this is a few days late, but there's no reason not to start now!

photoGhost