The Visual Time Capsule: A Beginners’ Guide to Documenting Daily Life

In a year that has been arguably the most difficult of our lifetimes, we have all been forced to turn inward, to our homes and our families, a dramatic shift from living in the outside world.  My work has certainly changed, as major projects have been placed on the back burner and my client work has been nearly zero.  It has forced me to be more creative within my four walls, which is even trickier now that I have teenagers who occasionally flip me the bird while shooting (their direct method of letting me know they’re not participating).  Who knows?  Maybe I’ll publish a book of all those images one day.

I found my way into photography sort of by accident.  I don’t have a degree in photography and I don’t consider myself to be particularly artistic or creative.  Rather, I felt the passage of time going faster and faster as my kids were getting older and I wanted a way to preserve that.  And since my kids moved through the day like three tornados, posed images were not an option.  I just started taking photos of them being themselves and enrolled in workshops related to documentary photography.  What I have now is a curated collection of images that share my perspective as their mother.  It sounds simple, but to me, it’s the most beautiful gift I can share with them.  Although it took an effort to organize, each of them has a box of printed images that are added to as time passes, images of vacations, adventures, holidays, and family gatherings, but the most precious to me are the ones of our everyday life.  

I recently watched a 2005 documentary of legendary photographer Sally Mann, who used the word “quotidian” to describe the inspiration for her work, which I just love.

Inspiration and meaning for me come directly from quotidian life, a mundane experience that has beauty and nuance, if you know how to look for it. 

As we round out 2020 and reflect on everything this year has meant, both good and bad, I wanted to share a series of words + photographs that are meant to show how anyone can document everyday life, with practical information that anyone can use as well as encouragement to look beyond what may feel quotidian to explore meaning, beauty, and love . . . even if the times feel dark and lonely.

Start with Why

The “why” is the greatest driver of the choices we make and the actions we take.  Without a doubt, my greatest “why” has been motherhood.  My desire to photograph is rooted in my desire to document my experience as a mother.  My images reflect how I see the world, and more importantly, how I feel as a mother and the love I have for my children.  When they were small, I felt like I blinked and they were all suddenly a year older.  The enigma of time is a strange one.  The days drag on but the years fly by.  Here we are, 10 months into a global pandemic, and I can’t even watch TV without a physical reaction to seeing people hugging in a crowded bar without masks.  Everything has changed.  In a small way, I became aware of the shifts that came with the passage of time by watching my kids grow up.  I wanted to hold onto that, so I began to commit myself to documenting my everyday life.

I used to laugh when we’d be walking as a family and I would try to run up ahead of my kidsso that I could turn around with my camera and take photos of them walking together.  When I would turn around, they’d be at my heels, running after me, like a bunch of ducklings following right behind.  So I started taking photos of them looking up at me.  They weren’t perfect images, whatsoever.  But now, those eyes that were once looking up at me are beginning to look down on me, because he’s taller than I am.  

For better or worse, life keeps moving forward.  And it’s worth documenting.  In this weekly series (over the next four weeks), I’ll share simple ways to document everyday life, improve the quality of personal images, ways to find inspiration, and organize prints as keepsakes.  

If there is any specific topic you’d like me to include or questions you might have, please comment or email me at hello@laurengayeski.com. I ‘d love to hear from you!