Last Updated on 08/07/2014 by Chris Gampat
All images by Justin Aversano. Used with permission.
Photographer Justin Aversano is Brooklyn based photographer that has worked on and completed what could be one of the most daunting 365 projects ever. For one year, he searched for people with a birthday on that date, conversed with them and asked them for their photograph. If that isn’t tough enough, he did the entire project with Polaroid film–which presents its own technical issues to begin with.
“Initially what inspired this project was that I was experimenting with Polaroids a week before I started the project. I was sitting with a group of friends late at night exploring our consciousness and we heard a knock on the door. It was a friend from school Brian and a few of his friends from New Jersey; he thought we were throwing a party that night, but we were not, though I invited him in regardless.” says Justin on the start of how all this happened.
“I was sitting in a chair awaiting our visitors to my surprise that it was one of Brian’s friends birthday; after saying happy birthday and greeted our guests I then looked down and saw the Polaroid camera.” For Mr. Aversano, this is the moment where it all came together.
To start, Justin did what every other photographer does: begins with family and friends. But it eventually became more challenging and he realized that in order to do the project, he would need to venture out further into the community. So to do this he travelled to other states outside of New York and found parties. He even went to the West Coast.
“To overcome initial nervousness is through self discipline, though there were a lot of doubts if one may or may not find someone whose birthday it is that day is quite a nervous thought, but when one embarks on an art project with their deepest passion and willpower then all is able.”
Justin attributes making great use of Facebook to find folks who had a birthday. But of course, that didn’t always work out–so he walked around the streets everyday with a sign that said, “Is it your birthday today?” until he found the right people.
Some of Justin’s work is after the jump.