Jeff Harris 3,653 Self Portraits

In the grand atrium of Brookfield Place,
this exhibition’s massive grid of images
celebrates a ten-year milestone in Jeff
Harris’s personal photo project. Since
January 1, 1999, Harris has made at
least one photograph of himself every
day. Soon after, he started posting them
on the internet. Harris’ project anticipates
the current obsession taken up
by millions of people to document and
make public every aspect of their lives
on Facebook, Flickr and similar sites.
Harris’ photographs are selfportraits
in the broadest definition of
the term. Sometimes the images contain
only the barest trace of the subject
– the artist’s feet, shadow or his reflection
on a table – and as often as not
the portraits of Harris have been taken
by other people (the artist frequently
has celebrities he happens to encounter
take his picture – Gene Simmons,
Michael Moore, Leslie Feist). Seen
together, the 3,653 images provide
an evocative portrayal of how Harris’
life plays out, day after day. Whether
the social media giants will continue
to flourish remains to be seen; meanwhile,
Jeff Harris’ website has a huge
following and he plans to keep on
shooting.