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About...

...the project

Since 2011 I have been taking pictures every day around sunrise and sunset, when the natural light is at its best. Being a high school teacher myself, from the beginning I was hoping to raise money for educating Tibetan refugees in India. It took me until now to finally start to realize this wish.

I want to help out the Tibetan Children's Village school in Ladakh, northern India. I visited the school in July 2012 and saw how well they put previous donations to use and how much more help they need. They had a major mudslide which ruined many buildings in their community in 2010. The donations received from this project will go 100% directly to them.

The best part about it is that the donations will not only help children there directly, it will also continue helping children for years as it will be used for books and other learning material. I spoke with the school last week and a more specific project plan is currently being made by mister Tenzin Rabten, the assistant principal of the school. This information will be shared with you when it is received.

In total there are 731 days in 2011 and 2012. If I can find a supporter for every day I made pictures, then together we will surpass the goal of €10,000. So I ask you please donate €15 by 'Owning a day'. If that is not in your capacity, you can still help by sharing this project with as many people as you can! I only need 731 people who are able to miss €15 just one time.

Since 2012 is not yet over, if your favorite date is in the future please stay tuned and donate when the picture is online, as it is a first come first serve policy.

Any donation is useful, no matter how small. The total will be added to the balance and displayed on the website.

...me and how it came to this

I’ve always been inspired by 365-days projects. I love the idea of performing a daily task. There’s something very appealing about the discipline it takes. A simple idea, but not so simple to execute. I also believe it’s even greater to combine such a daily project with fundraising, like Sheena Matheiken did with her awesome Uniform Project. I fell completely in love with the whole concept and it was very clear I wanted to start a similar fundraising photo project.

Since I have a thing for Tibet, the country, its people and its culture, and having seen with my own eyes what the Chinese repression means for the people who are still living in Tibet as well as for the refugees in different parts across the Himalaya, the cause was easily found. Being a teacher myself I also believe in the enormous power of education, so the cause was further defined into sending Tibetan refugee children in India to school. I found an organization in India called Tibetan Children’s Villages (TCV) that does just that.

At the end of the year 2010 things suddenly started to fall into place. As I was going through my picture archives I noticed how often I take pictures of sunrise and sunset. Is that not too cliche? Sunrise and sunset are important times for meditation though, and also for photographers. It would also mean developing an iron discipline to get up around sunrise every day, an extra difficulty. On the other hand, I would get the chance to get used to that slowly, day by day.

Another extra difficulty was that sunrise/sunset meant not one, but two photos a day! I did not have much time to think it all through and I decided I would just get started on the first of January 2011 and see how it would go. Originally, the idea was to do it for one year.

Today, almost two years later, I am finally ready to share my project with the world. And now it’s all up to you! Oh well, mostly. For the last three months you can follow me here, on Facebook and on Twitter. On the How it works-page you can find out how to donate, 'own a day' or buy photos. Please share this project with your friends, tell them about my goal and let me know if you like to exhibit some photos or if you like to interview me about the project. That would be awesome!

THANK YOU!

Anette Olson-Plinck

Rotterdam
30 september 2012

...the design

Marc Fabels @ EMERGENCY RESPONSE UNIT
www.emergency.nl

...the website

Brian Olson @ The Outer Quartile Range (OQR)
www.oqr.nl

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