50 Paces Project

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About 50 Paces Project

Why 50 Paces
The 50 Paces Project is an art installation on a floating gallery / frozen river originally developed for my father. Photos are taken in increments of 50 paces from people's homes and hung on the corresponding trees marking the safe path every 50 paces from Moose Island to the shore.

All photos submitted to this group must be tagged with the number of paces from your home - in 50 paces increments.

When the river freezes the photos are printed, collated and laminated to be hung on trees embedded in the river ice.

Photos will be hung on the tree corresponding to the distance the photo is taken from your home - i.e. the "50 paces" photos will be on the 50 paces tree. The "1000 paces" photos will be on the 1000 paces tree.

By inviting other Flickr photographers from around the world to participate I hope to have a colourful and fascinating set of photos for the installation.

Join in and submit your own photos (old or new) from 50 paces, 100 paces... all the way to 1050 paces from your door.

Walking across the ice will become even more of an adventure.

How to Join?

Just scroll up to the top and click the "Join This Group" button on the top righthand side of the screen.

Tagging - Please tag the photos with the distance from your home in multiple of 50 paces so they can be hung on the appropriate tree. Eg. 50paces, 200paces, etc.
What is a pace? - a pace is two normal sized steps for an adult. (Count every time your right foot hits the ground). Generally about 2-3 feet. Based on my pace, a full city block is between 50-100 paces.
Note: by submitting a photo to this group you are giving me approval to print your photo for use in 50 Paces Project.

People might look at you funny if you are walking down the street counting to yourself. My advice? Start twitching a little and they'll give you a wide berth!

In 2004/05, I lived my father's island life waiting for the ice to form on the river so I could cross to shore. [see Watching the ice form... a month spent on an island - off-line, off-grid, off-shore.]

Part of this process included testing the ice to make sure it was safe to cross. The rule is that every 50 paces, you stop and chop a hole in the ice to test its thickness. Where the ice is safe to cross, you marking the path path by putting trees in the holes you've chopped in the ice. These trees become a road to and from the island until the ice is unsafe to cross again.

The icon photo is of the 50 Paces Tree in 2007.