Is taking a picture of yourself everyday for 8, 10, or 20 years really becoming a discipline or a genre? As we know, the true litmus test for these kinds of things is The Simpsons, our cultural barometer.

Karl Baden teaches photography at Boston College, and has been taking his own photo for 20 years. He says “the idea, basically, is to take all the variables, except one [the passage of time], and turn them into constants…I try not to change physically. I don’t grow a mustache or beard. I pretty much cut my hair the same way.” However, his project is a photo installation, not a video.

Since Ahree Lee posted her video on YouTube, we have seen a growing trend of self-portrait movies, or video portraits. Artists, voyeurs, self-obsessed, or simply curious, people are taking pictures of themselves simply because they can.

While not a self-portrait, Luke Dubois’ awesome video piece, Playboy, depicts change over time in a more dramatic fashion. He shows different playboy models over a span of 50 year. Using max/msp, he manages to place their eyes in the same place, much like Lee does.

Related Links:
A New York Times article on this trend includes links to other artists and shows working with this idea

Noah Kalina‘s blog – the artist The Simpsons parodied.
The music in the piece is by Carly Comando, which Simpsons producers did not compensate. Sounds like a case of copy-WRONG to me.

The original video that was parodied on YouTube.

John Keller, another “video portrait artist” includes a list of similar projects on his site. John has photographed himself for 8 years, 2 more than Noah and 6 more than Lee.

As of this writing, these projects are still works in progress.

A projection system for the show “Losing Something” creates virtual characters onstage, like the “older self” for the actor Aldo Perez. The show is being put on by 3 legged dog (3LD). It’s playing at 80 Greenwich St until May 5th.

The NYTimes has a real interesting article on the entire project, along with Eyeliner’s technology.