A Hundred Smiles and My Frown

How unexpected. For the second time within three days, I spotlight photography that won’t be part of my Flickr a Day series but should be. The project, which reaches No. 136 this fine Saturday, only features work licensed Creative Commons and which resolution is ideally 2048 pixels or greater. Exceptional works of as little as 1000 px slip by; none less.

Photographers Jesslee Cuizon and Paulette Waltz collaborated to, on my birthday in 2009, “capture 100 smiles in one day in central Tokyo”, according to the project’s website. “Why 100 smiles? As photographers, we choose which moments and visual images to capture. We choose to see the positivity in the world around us and challenge others to see through our lens”. They do that—not just with the fabulous street shooting series but the photography posted in the years since.

Their project couldn’t make the Day because Paulette’s pics are All Rights Reserved and Jesslee’s are 425 px. But I couldn’t let this one go: His and her 100 Smiles albums. Neither photographer is currently active on Flickr, and her website is down. But their single-day project is a lasting storytelling legacy.

Photo Credits: Jesslee Cuizon