Week of Life

Billed as “the largest documentary project of all time”, Week of Life is a Czech-American initiative that aims to build a “photo archive of humanity”. The basic building block of the project is the period of one week in the life of an individual, who captures each day of the week in nine photographs taken throughout the day. The idea was inspired by the book One Year of My Life in 3285 Pictures by photographer Adolf Zika, published in cooperation with Leica. Zika set a goal of documenting one year of his everyday life in nine photographs a day. Three years after the publication of the book, the idea evolved into the Week of Life project. Every participant who contributes with his or her week thereby becomes an original piece in a neverending mosaic of human originality and uniqueness and a co-author of the whole documentary project, a gigantic photographic library of humankind in the 21st century. To learn more, visit the website below.
Website: Week of Life
Press Release
Week of Life – “LIFE ON EARTH THROUGH THE EYES OF ITS INHABITANTS”
Week of Life is a unique internet medium through which “citizens of our planet” can easily take part in the largest documentary project of all time – a photo archive of humanity!
The basic building block of this Czech-American project is the period of one week in the life of an individual, who captures each day of the week with nine photographs taken throughout the day. The author of the project considers one week being the most characteristic time span for a person with regard to human diversity and behavior. A week that has seven days, each of which has a different meaning, smell, sight, a different sense with varying intensity and energy, is the basic unit in life. Human activity, be it willed or unwilled, is organized around this span of time, which is why such a photo report can tell us so much about ourselves and others.
Every participant who contributes with his or her week thereby becomes an original piece in a neverending mosaic of human originality and uniqueness and a co-author of the whole documentary project, a gigantic photographic library of humankind in the 21st century.
The goal of the project is to learn about the lives of people living on our planet - people of different nationalities, professions, age, regardless of whether they consider their lives interesting or boring. The founding pillar of the project is a philosophy that every life is original and interesting, especially for someone, who lives in an entirely part of the globe. To contribute to the project, all that’s needed is a camera or a mobile phone with a camera and an interest in looking at one week of one’s life through the viewfinder of a camera. From this perspective, the project can be very entertaining and often educational, but above all, it becomes a sociological study into our souls. The project thereby offers not only a fascinating and uncensored reportage from the lives of people on this planet, but also opens up a possibility to learn and compare lives of people, who are separated by distance as well as attitude towards life.
The official launch of the project will be in September 2009 at the web address www.weekoflife.com. The project will be launched in ten language versions and this number will double in the course of the following year. Unlike other community sites, the goal of the project is not to tie people down to their monitors but to encourage them to realize the diversity of life around them and set out to discover it. It is not intended that people spend countless hours on the internet, on the contrary. As the author said himself: “We want to draw people away from the internet, drive them outside to live and have fun, and turn to internet only for the time necessary to share their life with others.” The goal is high quality content, which is created by the users themselves, and which undoubtedly has a highly educational character.
It goes without saying that Week of Life will also provide people with an opportunity to get to know the participants closer, share their experiences and impressions and in this way create one big human family. Personal profile pages will allow one to communicate with the Week of Life world, just as with other well known community sites.
Last but not least, several times a year Week of Life print magazine will be published, which will include the most interesting contributions to the project, interviews, photo reportages, profiles and theme articles. And the cherry on top should be an annually published book compiled of the 56 most interesting weeks from around the world, together creating one year.
Inspiration to the whole project was the book One Year of My Life in 3285 Pictures by Adolf Zika, which was created in co-operation with Leica. Art photographer, director and producer Adolf Zika set a goal of documenting one year of his everyday life in nine photographs a day. Three years since the original idea he develops the project Week of Life, which he presents to American entrepreneur Tomas Loewy. This Czech-American duo today forms the basic team of minds behind this documentary project.
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