During Small’s freshman year at 

Rhode Island School of Design, she learned of a woman named Martha Madigan who, every year, photographed herself

and her husband next to the same tree.

 

Fascinated by the idea of repetition, accumulation,

and self-examination, Small began her diaristic 

Polaroid of the Day project in 1997. 

 

Tracking emotional variance and physical change,

Polaroid of the Day commanded daily creative output and habitual self-reflection over fifteen years.


With Polaroid’s demise, Polaroid of the Day

came to a temporary halt. “The Impossible Project”

pointed to a possible revival of like-quality instant film,

and so the project teetered along for a few years.

 

Ultimately Polaroid's patent battle subsided.

Since then, Small finds similar dimension through

daily dream recordings (and the occasional

subway 'selfie' - wand not included). 




 

Below are non-sequential 

Polaroid-of-the-Day excerpts.


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