Michael Deering came up with his 'Picture of the Day' idea on his 30th birthday back in 1996, and hasn't missed a day since.
"Yeah, I took a single picture every day. Once the picture was taken, that was it. It's done for the day. When I would go bring it to the developer, I'd say, 'develop every frame, even if it's a dark frame,' - that's Picture of the Day. If it didn't work out, it didn't work out. So, one picture of the day and the camera's put away for the day. And here we are now, 25 years later. A quarter century later. November 1rst, 2021 I hit my 55th birthday and I think it was 9,125 photos."
Michael takes his photos on film...storing them in stacks of 365 for each year of the project. It's a ritual he takes very seriously...recognizing the benefit of the old-fashioned way of doing things.
"One of the most compelling times of my month is when I go get my roll of film back and sit in my car and look through these pictures one by one, day by day, and say 'oh, that worked out!', or 'what a great memory!' It really is cause for me as far as being a photographer, it helps me keep things slowed down. You know, in the world we live in, everything's fast. Everything's instant. Everything's now. Everything's shared immediately. This, to me, is an exercise and a ritual wherein it's one single photo each day that means something to me."
So with the endless photo ops each day brings, how does he choose what gets the honor of the coveted Picture of the Day?
"Sometimes it taps on your shoulder. Other times you go looking for it. Other times it's 11:30 at night and I'm getting ready to go to bed and I say, 'boy I haven't taken my picture of the day yet,' and I just go searching for something that I can compose that I think is pretty cool. It could be my child's homework sitting on the countertop at 11:30 at night after everybody's gone to sleep, and I realize that's meaningful to me and something I will look back on and long for some day to see on the countertop."
Other treasured photos Michael has taken include one of only three where he has allowed others to take the Picture of the Day - a photo of his own heart, one he convinced his doctor to take during his 2008 open-heart surgery. Another is the very first bouquet of flowers to be placed on the fence outside of Paisley Park upon news of Prince's death - a bouquet placed by Michael and soon to be replicated by thousands. The significance of some of these photos is not lost on him.
"I always say this project isn't just a documentation of Michael's life, it's a documentation of life."