why a "day in the Life"?

A day in the life projects were popular just before I left for the Philippines. A group of photographers would spend the day in a particular place documenting what happened--normal things basically. It seemed whenever I pulled out my camera in the camp, people would crowd into the photograph (see left--the guys definitely were not in my groups). I wanted to have a record of daily life rather than posed photos. I also was always looking for new activities for the young women I worked with at the Young Adults Services Program (YASP) to do during their class breaks. I decided the students could more easily explain (in Vietnamese) what we were trying to do in the project and get people to act more naturally than I could. Unlike other "Day in the Life" projects ours took 2-3 weeks instead of one day--when you have multiple photographers, one camera (my father-in-law's hand-me-down), and curfews to work around it takes a little longer! The project took place in March of 1991.

what to do with the photos?

Our class decided to have a showing of our project in the YASP recreational center. We had 5 x 7 photographs printed in the photo shop in camp. We mounted the photographs on whatever paper we could find--probably with white glue! Then we added black matting. The young women gave their photos titles, some pretty mundane and a few quite whimsical. We put the title in Vietnamese (with an English translation underneath), the date and time the photo was taken, and the name of the photographer below the photograph. I later transferred the labels to the back of the photographs. 

After I returned to the U.S. in June of 1991, the photographs traveled from Indiana to Illinois to New Mexico and back to Indiana for the next 20+ years. I stored them as carefully as I could, fully intending to "do something" with them eventually. This page and some recent requests to talk to Bethel College students about our life overseas gave me the push I needed to get started. 

photo front

photo back

YASP show

One of the photos from the project

The video(s)

I scanned the photos and transferred some compact VHS video to digital format to make three video presentations:  (I will upload the other video soon)
The Making of "A Day in the Life" (bottom--coming soon I hope)
The Photos with Titles (much as they were displayed in YASP--below photograph left)
Just the Photos (it's a little shorter and less reading--directly below)