Wednesday, February 24, 2010

The Happiness Project



Happiness is in the air! My wife, Lucy Danziger, who is the editor of SELF Magazine has written a book "The Nine Rooms of Happiness" along with SELF's mental health expert Dr. Catherine Birndorf. The book is officially published next Tuesday, but you can now order it on Amazon and Barnes and Noble, etc.. Having lived with the genesis, the writing, the editing, and the book party, I can personally attest to it's efficacy and encourage all of you to buy the book. (It's genuinely great.)

It also occurred to me that this would be a good time to launch The Year In Pictures own happiness project - so I am going to encourage all readers to send in their happiest picture to info@danzigerprojects.com along with a caption explaining why the picture is meaningful to them. It can be a snap or a fine art photograph taken by someone else. (Could there be any happier photographer than Lartigue - whose pictures illustrate this post?) Show me what you've got. All published pictures will get a copy of "The Nine Rooms of Happiness".

: )


Lartigue and Richard Avedon







7 comments:

Jennifer said...

Your wife's book sounds really interesting! I will definitely give it a look. Your Happiness Project seems a very appropriate and wonderful concept... just looking at these Lartique photos makes me smile, and the pic of him and Avedon is a great one I've never seen before. I look forward to seeing what people contribute to the project, and I'll have to put some thought into my contribution.

ModeKarussell said...

i like this idea :) Great. It maked me smile. probably i'll send you a picture too.

love,
mimi

Mandy said...

James,
You are my hero. This is the most lovely project I've ever heard of. My college roommate and I used to dream of starting the "Niceness Movement" in art, but I like the "Happiness Movement" even better! I know exactly the photo(s) I am submitting!!!
- Mandy :-)

Richard said...

This is going to sound completely maudlin, but I love Lartigue and always have because his photographs are so often an expression of love, and this is what I want to have in my photographs--a certain kindness and empathy, especially now, when so many photo projects are grounded in loathing. Granted, Lartigue had a fabulously privileged childhood, and the leisure activities he portrays were completely out of reach for most people at that time. Still, even for a populist such as myself, I've always thought that the family should be as Lartigue portrays it, a place of security, tenderness, warmth, humor. (Too many words, sorry.)

stacy said...

just checked out your wife's site - the book looks lovely!

i want to send you a photo but i'm just not sure how - am i missing your email address on your site?

cheers

The Year in Pictures said...

Stacy -

Send photos to: info@danzigerprojects.com

Thanks,
James.

Rebecca said...

It's a pleasure to see some images by Lartique. So many of his photos convey joy and exuberance. Here's to happiness!