Everyday is an ongoing art project by American photographer Noah Kalina that gained widespread attention when the first segment of the project, Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 6 years also titled everyday, was released in 2006 and became a viral video.[1][2] The first everyday video features a fast montage of thousands of pictures of Kalina spanning a period of six years all played sequentially as a time lapse.[3] Subsequent releases have followed this format and viewers are able to watch Kalina age.
Kalina began taking a photo of himself every day starting on January 11, 2000, at age 19. The video Everyday shows the photos chronologically, six per second, with an original piano score by Kalina's former girlfriend Carly Comando.[4] Throughout the compilation, Kalina's face remains emotionless in the center of the frame. Kalina uploaded the video to Vimeo on August 8, 2006, and YouTube on August 27, 2006.
Kalina had originally intended Everyday to be a photo project,[3] but was encouraged to make a film after seeing a video by Ahree Lee, which consisted of time-lapse portraits of the artist. He compiled his photographs into a video.[5][6]
As of 2013[update], the video had more than 25 million hits on YouTube.[7]
In a New York Times article, William A. Ewing, director of the Musée de l'Élysée, was quoted as saying, "Noah's video represents a phenomenal amplification not just in what he produced and how he did it, but how many people the piece touched in such a short period of time. There is nothing comparable in the history of photography."[5][3]
On July 16, 2012, Kalina announced an extension to his Everyday video on his website. The extended video, released to YouTube on September 4, shows 12 years, 5 months of his self-portraits with a run time of 7:41 (10 frames per second—1 month every 3 seconds).[10][11] In 2016, the project was described in academic work as having "archival persistence".[2]
On January 14, 2020, Kalina released to YouTube "Noah takes a photo of himself every day for 20 years" showing 20 years of his self-portraits with a run time of 8:17 (15 frames per second—1 month every 2 seconds).[12][13]
On July 13, 2021, Kalina released the video "7777 Days" that shows him aging 21 years over the course of 2 minutes. For this video, data scientist, neuroscientist, and programmer Michael Notter used artificial intelligence to align and blend Kalina's face.[14][15][16]
On January 10, 2023, Kalina released everyday.photo, a new website to house his everyday project. The site breaks down each day and photo in the project by its location, the clothing and accessories Kalina is wearing, and the length of Kalina's beard. Each day from the project is able to be minted on the blockchain as an NFT.[17]
^Carlson, Jen (9 January 2008). "Noah Kalina, Photographer". Gothamist. Archived from the original on 14 April 2014. Retrieved 30 November 2012. That video, called "everyday," was scored to original music by his ex-girlfriend Carly Comando
