For a year, on every weekday Maria Alexandra Vettese and Stephanie Congdon Barnes separately took a photo of their morning and posted their photos side by side on a shared blog. You can check out the blog right here. It’s named 3191, since that’s how many miles apart these two artists live. On the site, their two photos get paired next to each other which creates a dialogue between them. Together they often tell a small story, compliment each other’s compositions or have a similar color palette. The artists are both super talented photographers so the images are always beautiful, and it’s a fun surprise each day to see their connection. So now there is a book that documents their entire year of mornings. Every single pairing from that year is in this new book from Princeton Architectural Press. I had gotten a sneak preview of the book from seeing a clip on Martha Stewart that was swirling around blogland- yes even Martha was excited about it. But I did not actually hold the book until now, which I learned has a nice raised texture on the cover of white tiny polka dots that feel really nice to run your hands over. The interior has the photographic pairs sometimes as big as they can be on the page or sometimes scattered around as small as thumbnail images. There are too many image pairings where my mind wonders- how could this have happened? The images sometimes seem so linked that without the other it wouldn’t work. There are real coincidences- like a photo of a sleeping cat paired with a photo of some tangled yarn. I mean how could two people happen to take those two pictures on the same day out of any of the days they might have taken it. (My actuary husband would say out of that many pictures that’s not really as rare as you many think.) Others aren’t so obvious in their connections, but somehow my mind always finds a story they tell together anyway. They have decided to do a year of evenings now which you can keep up with right here. I mean just look at the connection of geometry in todays two evening images! You can get a copy of this book right here.

© Julia Rothman 2007