Long before they were called selfies, Karl Baden snapped a simple black and white photo of himself. Then he repeated it every day for the next three decades.

 

在“自拍”出现前，卡尔-拜登就每天拍下1张自己的黑白照片，接下来30年，他每天都这样做。
 

 

Baden's "Every Day" project officially turns 30 on Thursday and he says he has no intention of stopping. The stark¹ contemplation on mortality and aging has prompted some to dub² the Boston College professor the unwitting "father of the selfie."

 

He recognizes the ubiquity of the selfie has helped raise the profile of the project, which has been exhibited in art galleries in Boston, New York City and elsewhere over the years.

 

"If it wasn't for the selfie craze, I'd probably be slogging along in anonymity³ as usual," Baden joked this week. "Which is sort of what I had expected."

 

Baden, 64, quietly launched his project on Feb. 23, 1987, the day after Andy Warhol died and nearly two decades before Facebook emerged. He tries to remain faithful to that first image, posing with the same neutral facial expression and using the same 35mm camera, tripod, backdrop and lighting⁴.

 

"The act itself is like brushing your teeth," he said. "I'll just take the picture and get on with the rest of my day. It's not a holy ritual or anything."

 

Baden has taken other pains to maintain the same aesthetic⁵. He has consciously not grown a beard or mustache, and his hair remains⁶ simply styled.

 

"I have to turn all these variables into constants so that I'm not distracting from the aging process," Baden explained.

点击收听单词发音