The 366 Project {2020} | Maine Children and Lifestyle Photographer

If you’ve been following my work for the past few years, you know that I’ve embarked on a few 365 day projects. For those unfamiliar with what this means, it means that I take a photo of my own life, every day, for one full year. I started this venture in 2017, with the goal of getting through the project, about a month into 2018 I realized just how much I missed it. So I started up again in 2019, which turned into 2020, and now, even though on December 31, 2020 I was saying I was going to take a year off, here I am, four days into my 2021 project. There is nothing quite like sitting down on New Year’s Day and looking back on every single day of your life for the past year. It’s heartwarming, bittersweet, and beautiful. If I appreciate it this much now, I can’t imagine how I’ll feel twenty years from now, looking back on these young years of our daughter’s life. For me, it is important to photograph with my big camera as much as possible, and so these projects also make me a better photographer, and year after year it’s fun to see how much my daughter grows, and how much my work grows, too.

As we all know, 2020 was insane. And in this family it was a mix of emotions, anxiety, high highs, and low lows. When I completed my first project in 2017 I said that if I could photograph through working two full-time jobs and having a kiddo, I could photograph through anything, but I think I need to update that sentiment to say if I could photograph through 2020 I can photograph through anything. And so we have a collection of a year with small adventures (well, with the exception of our Disney trip in February which we were so lucky to get in only a few weeks before everything shut down), lots of time at home, remote learning, masking up, missing friends and family, and coming together more as our own little family unit.

It was easy for us all to see the bad in the year we just had, but I will be forever grateful that I continued to pick up my camera. We’ll look back on 2020 and remember the hard times, but I hope these photos also remind us of the beauty of the everyday and the world around us, even in the middle of a crazy pandemic.

I would be remiss if I did not give thanks to my Molly, who has grown to love this project as much as I do, to my husband Jim who is slowly allowing me to photograph him more and never complains when I spend hours on the computer editing photos for our own life, and for the support of family, friends, and clients, who are always so encouraging about all of my work, but especially the work I do for myself. These projects are MY self care, but would never be possible without the support of others.

So, 2020, I cheers to you, and I bid adieu. I pray that 2021 brings photos of vaccination cards and time with friends and family, but for now, I am happy to sit back and watch the hidden beauty of the wackiest year of our lives.

There were 366 days in 2020. These are our 366 days. Thanks for following along with us. ❤️

View the full 2020 collection here. 365 {2021} coming soon!