When Ian McLeod had his son Cory, he decided to immortalize every memory of his childhood. So, he took out his camera and started taking pictures of his son. “This idea just came to me. What if I took his photo every day?” He told Mirror that he originally only planned to do it for a year or two, but, “After a year of taking photos, I thought ‘hmm maybe I can do two years …’ and so it went.”
So, for 21 consecutive years he photographed his son every day. He ended up with nearly 7,500 images that he eventually decided to digitize. It took him about three months.
Eleven years ago, Cory, now 32, enthusiastically took over his father’s job.
“It would be pretty cool to see birth to death, so I’m just going to keep going until the end,” Cory told the BBC.
Viral video
When he turned 21, Cory took the initiative to post a video to showcase his father’s tireless work. “My mum and my dad were very artistic people and they met at art college, so they are creative people,” he told Mirror. “To me, it’s a very unique piece of art and I hope my dad gets some kind of recognition.”
With over six million views on YouTube, the video features a series of photographs in chronological order, in which viewers can see his growth from infancy to young adulthood.
Cory told the BBC that when he looks at the photos they remind him of happy moments on his journey: “It kind of takes me back to that time, and takes me to a memory and I actually remember what was going on.”
Now a few years later there are 11,000 photos. “I feel like I’d be letting my dad down if I stopped,” he told the BBC.
His father, in fact, managed to keep up with this challenge for 21 years with an analogue film camera. “So if I’ve got an iPhone, I’ve got no excuses, really,” added Cory.
