My suggestion? A photographer.

Who else spends their days striking through life’s tiny slices of time searching for and translating merit and beauty and meaning and magic and art like a photographer does? Musicians and artists and other creatives delve into nearby waters but, arguably, photographers do so in a very accessible and uniquely documentary way.

That documentary ability is one of photography’s most fascinating and powerful characteristics, in that it reminds us of the passage of time. Who among us hasn’t been startled by looking at old photos of others (“that’s what my great-grandparents looked like?”) or ourselves (“I can’t believe I looked so young back then”)? Take away documentary photographs and what is left are often imprecise memories that transform as they are recalled.

With that in mind, and after brainstorming for some time, I began a project which I called The Morrissey Lifelong Project.

Soon after the birth of Ayla, their first child, Stephen and Zoe posed for a photo in front of their beautiful, historic home in the Shaganappi neighborhood of Calgary. At intervals that we hope will be as frequent as possible, we will recreate the photo over and over through changes of season and family additions and technological advances and landscaping fashions and whatever other twists in the story the future may hold. We aim to make this a lifelong timelapse project.

Perhaps not so incidentally, the word “shaganappi” means “rawhide thong or lacing” in the Cree language. How fitting it is that we are lacing together the extended version of the Morrissey family history in this visual format.

You can view the photos we’ve taken so far by clicking on the slideshow below or seeing the individual images below that.

• March 11, 2012: After a couple of years of planning, we take the first photo!
• March 4, 2013: Photo bomb by Nekko, the cat.
• April 20, 2013: Ayla’s first standing photo.
• August 9, 2013: Aunt Kinsey photo bombs the scene.
• January 26, 2014: With the addition of Desmond the family grows by one.
• August 3, 2014: Guest appearance by Yucel and Patricia, the grandparents.
• August 1, 2015: Tsitsa the tabby makes an appearance.
• September 30, 2016: Guest appearance by Aurelie, the nannie.
• February 20, 2017: Tsitsa the tabby is back.
• September 24, 2017: Desmond’s fourth birthday party!
• July 31, 2018: Taken just days before Zoe and Stephen’s tenth wedding anniversary.
• October 6, 2018: Desmond just turned five. First photo with the new kittens, Ru and Luna.
• March 7, 2019: Seven years of the project completed. And Stephen just turned 47.
• October 4, 2021: First photo since the COVID pandemic started.
• July 10, 2022: With this photo, the project completes its first decade.
• January 14, 2023: First photo of 2023.

January 26, 2020

July 21, 2024