Jeff Harris jeffharris.org
Toronto based artist, Jeff Harris, has made a self-portrait every day since January 1, 1999. This body of photographs (4,108 of them as of March 31, 2010) are displayed at jeffharris.org. This series first appeared online at the vanguard of the blogging revolution and eleven years later this project still stands well above the crowd. The site was nominated three years in a row for a Webby Award, and has been featured in The New York Times, USA Today, and on Fashion Television. The innovative nature of the photographs and website, the participation of relevant famous figures (Al Gore, Isabella Rossellini and Gene Simmons are among the contributing photographers), and the sheer magnitude and persistence of this project makes the work very poignant, accessible and exciting to the public. This poignancy is amplified by Jeff’s recent life-altering cancer diagnosis in November 2008.
Raised and educated in Ontario, Harris taught a high-school course in website design for at-risk youth before working as a photo editor and website designer for Adbusters magazine in Vancouver. He won a Webby Award in 2000 for his work on adbusters.org and is currently a photographer and photo editor at Maclean’s magazine in Toronto.