I am not one of those people who can distill "who I am" or "what I do" into a nicely wrapped, carefully coifed package. I prefer my multi-hyphenated, free spirited life to a life in a box marked "profession" or "sports team fan" or "someone-else's-something-or-other."
I am even having a hard time getting this written.
I want to share myself with others - I want to document life and the impact I have on the world simply in being myself.
I've been a documentarian for my entire life, but the timing of leaving the conventional workplace fifteen-years-ago and building my career on an online platform which included writing and imagery, the way I expressed myself changed and continues to change.
Six years ago I started taking self portraits: in the beginning I used my point-and-shoot digital camera and became quite adept at blind composition. This skillset was, I believe, what lifted the visual inner editor and forced her out of any level of my consciousness.
I did a couple projects of documenting myself for a year at a time. It was less common then, so I had to literally convince myself I had not become a crazed ego-maniac, but rather this was about something else. This was about self discovery and documenting my world and in doing so, documenting the rest of the world.
It worked.
This conscious, simple act changed how I saw myself and continues to impact me now.
In January, 2014 I somehow became aware of the #365feministselfie project and was immediately hooked. This was a chance to document my life alongside other feminists and in doing so collaboratively, we could share the message of today's feminists with the world.
It is like a massive "This is what a feminist looks like" t-shirt on visual parade via a sea of women, being exactly who we are on a specific day and time for an entire year.
It gives us each a chance to become comfortable with putting our real selves on display.
Personally I gain an opportunity to further my skills in storytelling, one frame at a time, this time without paying much concern to vanity but instead, to story: mine and the universal story of women and humanity.
I am coming to know the other women in the project via instagram and flickr and twitter. I love all the feminist Mommies, the women in my age group - approaching cronedom and proud of it. I enjoy all of us with our gorgeous culturally perceived imperfections which I find remarkably evocative and more than anything, purely and absolutely beautifully just right.
The first month is nearly over.
I have not missed a day yet, though I have come close several times and had to snap quite cliche or tried-and-true "Damn, I'm tired" photos right before turning off the light to go to sleep.
I have captured the process of the early stages of grief over the end of a relationship.
I have captured the meeting of my first grandchild.
I have captured my interactions with my children and my Godson.
I have purposefully posted less-than-flattering photos.
It reminds me of when poet Muriel Rukeyser wrote, "What would happen if one women told the truth about her life? The world would split open."
You may leap in at any time. You don't have to be a woman to participate, you simply need to identify as a feminist. You may not even be completely comfortable with that label, given what some slivers of society have made that mean.
I simply hope you will become engaged in your own version of this process.
Tag your photos on instagram or twitter or flickr or facebook #365feministselfie. I can't wait to get to know you.
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Julie Jordan Scott is a writer, creative life coach, speaker, performance poet, Mommy and mixed-media artist. Her word-love themed art will be for sale at a First Friday soon, when it is warmer than it was in December!, in Downtown Bakersfield. Check out the links below to follow her on a bunch of different social media channels, especially if you find the idea of a Word-Love Party bus particularly enticing.
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© 2014 - Julie Jordan Scott - all rights reserved.
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