Every day, for the last ten years, Dr. Clare Gibson has posted a picture to social media-that's 3,652 photos--and it's something she spends up to an hour on each day, even though she has a full-time job, a husband, dog and cat and whatever outdoor conditions Edmonton throws her way. None of it has stopped Gibson from posting pictures of everything from wildlife shots to nature landscapes to people on the street.
"In the early years, it was a conscious decision to keep doing it," said Gibson, a British ex-pat who is now also an independent filmmaker, creating health-related films mostly for charities and the academic world. "But now it'd be a conscious decision to stop doing it. I'm still enjoying it, so why not keep at it?"
What started as a 'photo a day' project through a photography magazine, using snaps taken on an iPhone, the 44-year-old Gibson says she initially liked the idea of a weekend endeavour, a creative outlet that took her away from her busy life as a health researcher.
With a PhD in health and eventually another master's degree in film, Gibson moved beyond that first one-time project and began experimenting; taking photos at different times of day, with different cameras (iPhone, an Olympus, Canon and Polaroids, old and new) and posting onto Facebook and then Twitter and Instagram.
"I don't want to repeat myself, so I started upping the artistic expression, making some photos black and white, or adding grainy features--always keeping it fresh," she said, adding smart phone technology has improved a lot through the decade, making many things possible--like a self-portrait posted to celebrate the ten-year anniversary of her photo project using software that created tiny mosaic tiles of all the photos she's posted to date.
"I don't know how many followers I have, (about 1,000 on Twitter), but people have been kind enough to post about the anniversary and what certain photos have meant to them."
Gibson says she's got a few favourites among the bunch--a vacation in Vancouver on the beach, an adult and young eagle interacting on the water, and a whimsical photo of a phone box and bowl of noodles near Whyte Avenue that she says epitomizes the vibe of the area.
"I started taking a lot more flowers after the pandemic though--I felt the need for joy; a need for celebration."
But Gibson acknowledges there's no rhyme or reason to the subjects in the photos; it depends on the day, and how she's feeling. When it is minus 30 though, she does quick work of her outing. "I wrap up really well on the coldest days. I can take it, but iPhones can turn off in the extreme cold," she said.
If a gallery ever wanted to showcase all the photos, Gibson says she's game, and she has applied for grants along those lines too. "The uniqueness is in the longevity and the everyday of it," she said.
To follow Gibson's work on Twitter, go to @cg_creative. On Instagram, she's at clare_gibson_creative.
