What even is this?

SevenFiftyNine is a photo diary of my life. I take a single photo - of whatever I happen to be looking at - at 7:59pm every single day. I started doing this on June 19th, 2009, and haven’t missed a day since.

Okay but why?

Life’s not a highlight reel. But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth remembering.

By taking one photo every day at the same time, I stay grounded in the moment. I can enjoy what’s going on around me without worrying about getting my phone out and lining up the perfect shot. I’m not constantly waiting for the perfect confluence of circumstances to try and engineer some curated illusion of what my life is like, or worse, obsessive-compulsively whipping my phone out every time a plate of food is placed in front of me.

Right at 7:59pm every day, I just take a candid, spontaneous snapshot-in-time of whatever happens to be going on around me. (Importantly, it’s never a selfie. I’m only in them if I happen to be standing in front of a mirror.)

And because I don’t want to look back on an album of boring photos of the same thing for days on end, it fosters a compulsion to seek out new experiences. It reminds me to be present, and to go do something interesting, or go be somewhere interesting, every single day.

The goal isn’t to curate the perfect Insta feed. I just want to remember what my life really looked like.

Why 7:59pm?

That’s the most interesting time of my day. It’s after work. It’s when the night’s just getting started. I might be at a show, or going out with friends, practicing with the band. Literally anything could be happening at 7:59pm.

And 8pm? 8pm just doesn’t have the same ring to it.

So what, that’s it?

Yeah, it’s pretty simple, I guess. It has had some pretty interesting side-effects though. I mean, on top of turning new experiences into a good habit. It’s also been an unbelivable memory tool. I can look back on months of photos at a time and instantly remember what was important in my life at the time. What I was thinking. What my hopes were, and feelings, and fears.