Print It! Project 365, by Andrew Funderburg

When Andrew Funderburg, founder of Fundy Software, was recently given a print of his great, great uncle on his mother’s side, it struck a chord with him. “The print is about 100 years old and not only looks fantastic but also serves as a memory for generations of my family,” he explains. “If we lose someone today and all we have are digital memories, in 100 years who will be able to see those memories? No one.”

Courtesy of Andrew Funderburg

Photo © Andrew Funderburg

After that, Funderburg decided to embark on what he calls Project 365, wherein he gives himself an assignment to shoot and print something every day for a year. He started in June and was at about 120 prints when we last spoke. “It’s amazing to see how big a stack that amounts to,” he says with a laugh. But in all seriousness, he adds, “the importance of taking a photograph is to preserve memories, and my motivation, specifically, is to force myself to focus on the end print and not just on taking photos.”

Photo © Andrew Funderburg

So what to shoot, what to print? Funderburg says because he loves street photography and is also personally concerned with the subject of homelessness, that was the topic he stuck with on the streets of his hometown—Portland, Oregon. He also conducted interviews to keeps things more interactive and conversational.

“My street work is all shot in black and white, and all portraits are taken using a 50mm lens,” he says, adding that his more “action” scenes are done with a 35mm. “I also give every person who participates a Polaroid to keep.”

He also posts to Facebook every time he makes a print and encourages other photographers to follow him and post their prints, too. “It’s very organic,” he explains. “So far Kara Wallace from Jim Garner’s Studio in Seattle, Washington, and Brian Joseph Calabrese (a wedding photographer from Massapequa, Long Island, have committed to the print project and print every day. I’d love to see more photographers commit to one print a day!”

Photo © Brian Joseph Calabrese

Photo © Brian Joseph Calabrese

Photo Kara Wallace