Closing a Year-Long Project

Back on September 29, 2019, I had an idea for photographing my view from a window wherever I was physically located each morning when I woke.

At the time, I envisioned our excursions into the world as we knew it then. Short trips to New England towns, a stay a cabin in the woods, a trip overseas. A year of documenting seemed like a fun way to pass a year.

For most of the Fall and early Winter months of 2019, we were both busy with work-related responsibilities, so our trips became a trip to Boothbay at the end of leaf-peeping.

And then, 2020 happened.

Our last trip away from our condo in Lowell, MA turned out to be an overnight to a concert held at the Museum of Fine Arts at the beginning of March. We took the train into the City, had a wonderful time going to the Museum, stayed at the edge of the South End and returned the next day. It was the in-between time when the virus was just getting started in this country - or so we have been lead to believe.

We haven’t had a leisure trip since.

The visions of travel and waking up in different locations in the world - the way I envisioned this little project - is not the reality of 2020. Certainly we don’t feel as if a trip is in our immediate or long-range future. It is entirely possible that our return to a sense of normalcy will be altered in ways I cannot begin to imagine when we finally feel as if travel outside of our bubble is safe.

This all seems very strange.

I did keep on with my project though, even with the change in scope. As I cull through the 365 photos I did take every morning, mostly through the two giant banks of windows in our renovated mill building, the photographs will document changes over time throughout the seasons of 2019-2020. I believe the subtle changes and uniqueness of this year of years will be evident even though the vantage point does not change.

For now, however, I offer two photos: one at the project start (September 29, 2019) and one at the end (September 29, 2020).