The monthly self portrait project originated from Sarah Rhoads. Here’s the post that started it.

Sarah Rhoads has inspired me to share 12 self portraits—one for each month of 2010. Her recent post on the importance of self portraits resonated with me because from time to time I go through my image catalogs and find photos of myself that I had forgotten about. Inevitably I think, boy I’m glad I took that. Not because it’s necessarily a great photo, but because it’s documentation of the younger me in a different place in life. A different place creatively, spiritually, financially, educationally, relationally, socially, and on and on.

And the key thing about self portraits is they are inherently historical. They’re always of the younger you. I love the idea of looking back 20 years and sharing these images with my son. We’ll laugh at my ever-changing facial hairstyles. Giggle at my hats. And probably wonder what I was thinking with my earrings.

The self portrait isn’t new. Sarah reminded readers that its importance is not lost on great artists the world over.

On her blog she says, “Since the fifteenth century, artists have created self portraits of themselves. In every creative medium it seems a common practice that throughout the course of the artists’ career they create a variety of self portraits over the course of time.”

So this post marks the first of my 12 self portraits. Some of them might be from my point-n-shoot, or maybe even from my iPhone. The quality doesn’t matter. The record does.

I encourage others join in this project. Make record of your younger self. We spend too much of our time behind the camera. Let’s get out in front of it for once.

Thanks for the inspiration, Sarah.