Dreizehn Thirteens

In early December 2012 it was the last chance for a long time that the date would consist of three identical numerals for each day, month and year: 12/12/12.

Several blogs published twelve photos of twelve things, and so did Kathy Loomis on her blog. 

Kathy and I have known each other since we sat side by side during a master class on Nancy Crow’s farm, and especially since our collaborative project Daily Mail in 2011 (Kathy posted about it here and I did here). A week of vacation together on the North Carolina sea shore deepened the friendship, and accordingly I feel safe enough to leave comments on her blog with a slightly ironic undertone. When Kathy posted her twelve twelves I wrote something about what she would do the next year, post thirteen thirteens, and I thought I was teasing her. What does Kathy do? She throws it back into my face as a challenge for another collaborative project: thirteen times during 2013, on every fourth Tuesday, we should send each other thirteen pictures of thirteen things. Quickly we decided we would set this up as a private blog (Kathy did the ‚paperwork’), and off we went with our cameras at our side.

Well, it is everything but easy to find thirteen things of one kind in a manner that they would fit into one picture. Don’t believe me? Go out and try for yourself! That led to the modification of the rule that for every post date we were allowed to ‘substitute’ one of the pictures with a series of thirteen pictures on one theme.

Indeed, our thinking, and viewing habits, are strongly geared to either ten or twelve items. Even recognizing whether the bulk in front of you could amount to thirteen or more does not come easily. At the end of the year I could really count to thirteen without ever making a mistake! My husband and my son of course soon started making fun of this new habit of mine, and never really stopped that during the year. They did give hints, and were found counting themselves, though, and some pictures only were taken after they had pointed the opportunity out to me.

We finally agreed that after the completion of the project we could make it available to the public, and Kathy already posted about it here. I wanted to wait until the thirteenth of this month – and here you can find the direct link to the blog „Dreizehn Thirteens“. 

And because I ended up having a few more pictures of thirteen things for every period between postings, and only put up the best, I can add a little bonus here – plus it is not that easy to break such a habit, and I have discovered myself at counting and taking pictures of thirteen items even in 2014 (the last two photos).

13 times thirteen pins on my design wall

13 elephants

13 medicine bottles

13 beer "Filze"

13 empty toilet paper rolls

13 ash trays waiting for the summer 

13 bottle bottoms at Hundertwasser tower Abensberg