Noah K. Everyday
Since we last wrote about Noah K., 432 days have gone by—and 432 photos of his high-browed, wide-eyed, solemn face have appeared on his website, Noah K. Everyday. In the pictures, the unruliness of his hair ebbs and flows, his shirts change or disappear altogether, but his characteristic somber gaze holds steady.
With monk-like devotion, Noah has devoted himself to snapping a daily self-portrait and uploading the image to his webpage. And with what now feels like Web-like predictability, this quirky, personal project has brought him some measure of Internet fame.
A video stream of six years of Noah's self-portraits has garnered nearly 7 million views on YouTube and a leading art museum purchased a version for its permanent collection. Newspapers, magazines, and websites have come calling and VH-1 invited Noah backstage to pose with the stars at their "Big in '06" awards show. We emailed Noah to see how he's taking it:
Noah, you're a YouTube star. You've posed with Paris Hilton. And you were just acquired by the Austin Museum of Art. How's it feel?
It feels really good. It's great to get worldwide recognition for this project. It has certainly been an exciting ride. Not in my wildest dreams did I think it would become as big as it did. By the way, I should thank you! When you named my website the Pick of the day last year, it really set the whole thing in motion.
It was our pleasure! What exactly did the Texas museum acquire, anyway?
I had a show at Clamp Art in New York City and I made 100 limited edition signed and numbered DVDs available for purchase. The Austin Museum of Art bought one for their permanent collection. There are still a few left if you are interested.
It would be like owning a piece of Web history. Speaking of, we love your Flickr set of the photos you took with celebrities backstage at the VH-1 show. We read in your interview with The Washington Post that Dominic Monaghan refused to pose with you! That wasn't very hobbit-like of him.
No it really wasn't. It is too bad, I am a fan of "Lost" and it would have been nice to have met him. Ultimately, it's his loss—he turned down a chance to be part of an important Internet Pop Art project.
Do you really plan to take the self-portraits until the day you die?
Yes, I plan to photograph myself every day until the day I die. I have been doing it for almost eight years now. Once you have gone this long it's pretty hard to stop.
Does it ever feel like this thing has snowballed into something entirely different than what you intended?
I think the YouTube video might have snowballed into something entirely different than what I had initially intended, but the main project of a picture a day will always remain the same.
We're happy to hear that. Thanks, Noah! We'll be watching you over the years.
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