He Took a Polaroid Every Day Until He Died

By Chris Higgins
MentalFloss.com
May 21, 2008
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Yesterday I came across a slightly mysterious website — a collection of Polaroids, one per day, from March 31, 1979 through October 25, 1997. There’s no author listed, no contact info, and no other indication as to where these came from. So, naturally, I started looking through the photos. I was stunned by what I found.

In 1979 the photos start casually, with pictures of friends, picnics, dinners, and so on. Here’s an example from April 23, 1979 (I believe the photographer of the series is the man in the left foreground in this picture):

Throughout the 1980s we see more family/fun photos, but also some glimpses of the photographer’s filmmaking and music. Here’s someone recording audio in a film editing studio from February 5, 1983:

In the late 1980s we start seeing more evidence that the photographer is also a musician. He plays the accordion, and has friends who play various stringed instruments. What kind of music are they playing? Here’s a photo from July 2, 1989 of the photographer with his instrument:

In 1991, we see visual evidence of the photographs so far. The photographer has been collecting them in Polaroid boxes inside suitcases, as seen in this photo from March 30, 1991:

Throughout early 1997, we start to see the photographer himself more and more often. Sometimes his face is obscured behind objects. Other times he’s passed out on the couch. When he’s shown with people, he isn’t smiling. On May 2 1997, something bad has happened:

By May 4, 1997, it’s clear that he has cancer:

On October 5, 1997, it’s pretty clear what this picture means:

And just a few weeks later he’s back in the hospital. On October 24, 1997, we see a friend playing music in the hospital room:

The next day the photographer dies.

What started for me as an amusing collection of photos — who takes photos every day for eighteen years? — ended with a shock. Who was this man? How did his photos end up on the web? I went on a two-day hunt, examined the source code of the website, and tried various Google tricks.

Finally my investigation turned up the photographer as Jamie Livingston, and he did indeed take a photo every day for eighteen years, until the day he died, using a Polaroid SX-70 camera. He called the project “Photo of the Day” and presumably planned to collect them at some point — had he lived. He died on October 25, 1997 — his 41st birthday.

After Livingston’s death, his friends Hugh Crawford and Betsy Reid put together a public exhibit and website using the photos and called it JAMIE LIVINGSTON. PHOTO OF THE DAY: 1979-1997, 6,697 Polaroids, dated in sequence. The physical exhibit opened in 2007 at the Bertelsmann Campus Center at Bard College (where Livingston started the series, as a student, way back when). The exhibit included rephotographs of every Polaroid and took up a 7 x 120 foot space.

You can read more about the project at this blog (apparently written by Crawford?). Or just look at the website. It’s a stunning account of a man’s life and death. All photos above are from the website.

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(All photos property of their original owner)

911 call released, tape reveals mother pulled son and his girlfriend out of bathtub; police find no obvious signs of foul play

By Ryan Dunn
Staff Writer, The Post
May 6, 2008
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Athens County Emergency Communications yesterday released the 911 call made from the Riverpark Towers apartment where police found two dead students Saturday morning.

The mother of first-year Hocking College student Christopher Theil found her son and Ohio University senior Kelly Armbruster apparently dead in a Riverpark Towers apartment Saturday morning, according to the recording. Police said they found no obvious signs of foul play.

Theil’s mother said in the call that she was visiting Athens for Moms Weekend and had fallen asleep at 2 a.m. Saturday morning. It is unclear where she slept from the recording. She called 911 at 6:15 a.m., saying she had found them in the bathroom.

“I just pulled my son and his girlfriend out of the bathtub,” she said in the call.

She declined to comment for this story.

Armbruster was a senior studying management and strategic leadership in the School of Business, said university media specialist Katie Quaranta. Theil was a first-year student studying music management at Hocking College, said Hocking College public information director Judy Sinnott.

Police are investigating the deaths and talking to acquaintances of Armbruster and Theil, said Athens Police Capt. Tom Pyle.

“There was no obvious example of foul play involved,” Pyle said, noting that the crime scene lacked clear signs of physical force, such as breaking and entering.

The Athens County Coroner could not be reached for comment. A full coroner’s report will be available in four to eight weeks, Pyle said.

A woman who answered the phone at Riverpark Towers yesterday would not say who leased the apartment where Theil and Armbruster were found.

Ohio University addressed the deaths in a universitywide e-mail yesterday afternoon.

“On behalf of the university community, our hearts go out to the students’ families and friends who are dealing with this tragedy,” wrote Kent Smith, vice president for Student Affairs.

School officials usually wait until after the funeral to allow the family time to grieve before choosing a way to honor students, Smith said. Sinnott was unsure how Hocking would recognize Theil.

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