早在還沒有所謂的自拍出現前，波士頓學院攝影教授拜登就每天拍下1張自己的黑白照片，接下來30年，他每天都這樣做，從未間斷地記錄衰老的情況。

Long before they were called selfies, Karl Baden snapped a simple black and white photo of himself. Then he repeated it every day for the next three decades.
在“自拍”出現前，卡爾-拜登就每天拍下1張自己的黑白照片，接下來30年，他每天都這樣做。

Baden's "Every Day" project officially turns 30 on Thursday and he says he has no intention of stopping. The stark contemplation on mortality and aging has prompted some to dub the Boston College professor the unwitting "father of the selfie."
拜登的“每日”計劃到上周四正式滿30年，但他表示沒想停下來。拜登這種忠實審視死亡與衰老的做法，讓他獲得“自拍之父”的封號。他是波士頓學院的一名教授。

He recognizes the ubiquity of the selfie has helped raise the profile of the project, which has been exhibited in art galleries in Boston, New York City and elsewhere over the years.
他承認自拍風潮幫助他的項目提高了知名度，這些年來，照片在波士頓、紐約市等地的美術館展出。

"If it wasn't for the selfie craze, I'd probably be slogging along in anonymity as usual," Baden joked this week. "Which is sort of what I had expected."
他本周開玩笑說：“如果不是自拍熱，我大概會和以前一樣匿名拍照片，那也是我之前希望的?！?/p>

What makes the project work is that it reflects a number of universal themes, from death to man's obsession with immortalizing himself in some way, said Howard Yezerski, a Boston gallery owner who has exhibited the project on two occasions.
曾兩次展出照片的波士頓一家畫廊的主人Howard Yezerski表示，拜登的照片能一直拍下去，是因為照片反映了很多普遍的主題，從死亡到人類某種對不朽的執迷等等。

"It's both personal and universal at the same time," he said. "He's recording a life, or at least one aspect of it that we can all relate to because we're all in same boat. We're all going to die."
他說：“這是個人的，同時也是普遍的。他在記錄一段生命，或者至少是生命的一方面，我們都與此相關，因為我們都在同一條船上，都會死亡?！?/p>

Baden, 64, quietly launched his project on Feb. 23, 1987, the day after Andy Warhol died and nearly two decades before Facebook emerged. He tries to remain faithful to that first image, posing with the same neutral facial expression and using the same 35mm camera, tripod, backdrop and lighting.
1987年2月23日，現年64歲的拜登悄然開始了他的自拍計劃。攝影師安迪?沃霍爾前一天剛去世，距離臉譜網問世還有將近20年。他嘗試拍下與第一張相同的照片，采用同樣的面部表情，使用相同的35毫米相機、三腳架、背景和燈光。

"The act itself is like brushing your teeth," he said. "I'll just take the picture and get on with the rest of my day. It's not a holy ritual or anything."
他說：“拍照就像刷牙。我拍下照片，然后繼續過一天的生活。這并非任何神圣儀式?！?/p>

Baden has taken other pains to maintain the same aesthetic. He has consciously not grown a beard or mustache, and his hair remains simply styled.
為了讓照片保持一貫的風格，拜登還付出了其他代價。他有意不蓄胡須，發型也一直很簡單。

"I have to turn all these variables into constants so that I'm not distracting from the aging process," Baden explained.
拜登解釋說：“這些都保持不變，這樣才能看出照片所表現的衰老過程?！?/p>

Besides mortality, Baden says the project touches on the notions of obsession, incremental change and perfection.
除了死亡，拜登說照片還觸及了癡迷、漸進的改變和完美的概念。

"As much as I try to make every picture the same, I fail every day," he said. "There's always something that's a little different, aside from the aging process."
他說：“我盡可能每天都拍一樣的照片，但每天都失敗。除了衰老，總有那么點兒東西是不同的?！?/p>

Approaching 11,000 photos, the changes in Baden's appearance over time don't appear dramatic. But in 2001, Baden underwent chemotherapy to treat prostate cancer and became noticeably thinner.
在大約1.1萬張照片中，拜登的外貌隨著時間的改變沒有太劇烈。但在2001年，拜登接受了治療前列腺癌的化療，明顯消瘦了。

The cancer is now in remission and, as later pictures show, Baden quickly bounced back. The only lasting change from that time, he says, has been his eyebrows; they never quite grew back.
目前他的病情緩解，就像隨后的照片中那樣，拜登迅速恢復了。他說，那段時間帶來的唯一持久變化，就是他的眉毛，它們沒有再長回原來的樣子。

英文來源：美聯社
翻譯&編審：yaning