JAMIE LIVINGSTON: AN ANNUAL CELEBRATION ON OTBKB

For the last two years, I have run this piece on October 25th. It's called ON POLAROIDS AND LASTING FRIENDSHIP. Tonight some of Jamie's  friends are getting together to toast their friend -- OTBKB

When Jamie Livingston, photographer, filmmaker, circus performer, accordian player, Mets fan, and above all, loyal friend, died on October 25th (his birthday) in 1997 at the age of 41, he left behind hundreds of bereft friends and a collection of 6,000 photographs neatly organized in small suitcases and wooden fruit crates.

Jamie took a polaroid once a day, every day, including his last, for 18 years.

This photographic diary, which he called, "Polaroid of the Day," or P.O.D., began when Jaime was a student at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson. The project continued when he moved to apartments in New York City including the incredible circus memorabelia-filled loft on Fulton Street, which he shared with his best friend Chris Wangro. That loft was the site of many a Glug party, an "orphans thanksgiving," a super-8 festival of Jamie's lyrical films, and a rollicking music jam.

The picture taking continued as Jamie traveled the world with the Janus Circus, the circus-troupe founded by Chris Wangro, and later when he became a much-in-demand cinematographer and editor of music videos back in the early days of MTV. He contributed his talents to the ground-breaking Nike "Revolution" spot and many other commercials, too. Through it all he took pictures, made movies, and loved his friends. And the polaroids reflect all of that: a life bursting with activity, joy and sadness, too.

Jamie brought his camera wherever he went. As one friend said, "It probably helped his social life because everyone wanted to be in a photo of the day." It was always interesting to see what Jaime deemed worthy of a P.O.D. My husband remembers his own 30th birthday party in his photo studio on Ludlow Street: "Hundreds of people filled my loft and the party snaked down Ludlow Street to Stanton. But what did Jamie take a picture of? A potato chip or something. It was a gorgeous shot, though."

But more often than not, the photos were of friends, family, himself, special places he had visited, or just something that caught his discriminating eye. And if he'd been to a Mets Game that day, that was it -- a Mets game was always a worthy P.O.D.

And the pictures are utterly gorgeous miracles of photographic artistry. The color, the light, the time lapse swirls, the unerring composition. Whether it was a still life of what he'd eaten for dinner, an unblinking shot of his beloved grandfather (Pops), or swooningly romantic portraits of his beautiful wife or ex-girlfriends, any one of these photographs should be in a museum collection. But perhaps more importantly, Jamie's friends and the world need access to these pictures, which is why his devoted friends have been talking for years about ways to exhibit this massive body of work.

Back in September at a bris for the son of a good friend, HC and our friend Betsy, one of Jamie's still devoted ex-girlfriends, started talking about the P.O.D.s:  "Why don't we finally re-photograph all 6,000 of them and put them on a web site." And that's practically what they did. They spent many October days digitally re-photographing the picures. This labor of love was also exceedingly labor intensive and they only got up to 1990 (the P.O.D.s started in 1978). But they plan to finish the rest when they have some time again.

A year ago today there was a "Jamie Fest," a commemoration of the seventh anniversary of his death, a small group of friends gathered at the envy-inducing loft of one of Jamie's oldest, dearest friends in Tribeca and were treated to a veritable feast of PODs, films, good red wine, beer, and Chinese food. There was a warmth in that room, a convivial feeling of purpose, as the friends remembered their friend who left behind a journal of his life and their's too.

HC set up a random, non-chronological slide show of these pictures, as well as a special "computer station" where Jamie's friends could browse the well-indexed shots year-by-year, month-by-month, day-by-day. Hunched over the computer,some pictures made them sad, some made them reflective, some made them very, very quiet. Others made them laugh or squeal with recognition of an almost forgotten face, a wonderful memory, a special time too, too long ago.

Jamie was the best man at our wedding. He was HC's treasured co-hort since their days at Bard College. I met Jamie soon after meeting Hepcat, probably at the Great Jones Cafe, and always enjoyed our group adventures, including the annual walk of the elephants down 34th Street when the Ringling Brothers Circus arrived in town, the trips to photo shows to buy cameras and old photographs, their brunches at the Cottonwood Cafe, or seeing the Mets, and the Rolling Stones' Steel Wheels tour at Shea Stadium. I remember when Jamie visited me at the hospital when I was having pre-term labor with my son and nearly lost him. I remember how he and Betsy carried a heavy gift of a vintage toy box to my son's first birthday party in Prospect Park.

At the "Jamie Fest" last year in 2004 I located the stunning P.O.D. of our wedding day and marveled at how young and thin I was back then (marriage and kids really ages you). My husband looked so young and handsome in his father's tuxedo. I also found the picture from the night before the wedding when Jaime and Betsy joined at the emergency room at Beth Israel Hospital because my husband thought he had a broken his neck in a minor (okay major) car accident a few days before the wedding (pre-wedding nerves, no doubt).

Jaime and Betsy sat with us from mid-night until five a.m., while we waited for my husband's  neck to be X-Rayed. It turned out that he had a nasty case of whiplash and had to wear a neck brace at the wedding. When I suggested that Jamie and Betsy go home to get some sleep, Jaime refused to budge saying, "I'm your bestman. This is part of my job."

On this the 8th 9th anniversary of Jamie's death:  Thank you, Jamie, for being our bestman. And thanks for giving us a stunning portrait of our lives. You gave us more than you can ever know.