I suppose I haven't quite mentioned how I came up with this project, so here it is.
I am a frequent blogger, photography lover, and workaholic.
Now this being said, I always felt like life had given me so much and I wanted to do something to give back.
Coming up with an idea got me lost in my own thoughts on numerous occasions. I saw PostSecret, I loved it. I saw Humans of New York, loved that one too. I knew that I needed to find something that related to my passion, photography. I figured something would come up eventually or someone would mention something that might just "stick" but it didn't.
When I gave up looking for something, I ended up finding it. Murphy's Law I suppose right?
I stumbled upon a blog one day, that would change the way I saw life forever.
I found this. Follow the link and you will see Lauren's Blog.
Lauren was 25 years old when she was told she would have to face her own mortality. She had an incurable heart disease that would change the rest of her life indefinitely. I followed Lauren's story on her blogs (yes she has 2) and I was so inspired that a girl who had been told she had a disease that would eventually end her life, had so much motivation and determination to leave her mark. So I continued to follow along. Through countless posts about the hundred of pills she had to take, to uplifting posts about her getting accepted to art school, I was there following.
Lauren did get accepted to art school, and she started her own project called "100 Heartbeats"
She made small medallions that read "My heart beats in these streets" and she glued them in her favorite places (coffee shops, benches in parks, favorite restaurants etc.) Her goal was to place 100 of these medallions in the streets of NYC, in hopes that by doing this her heart may remember the good times and heal itself seeing as modern medicine really had nothing to offer.
Lauren made it to day 93 of her project before passing away earlier this year. My project is a continuation of hers. My hope is that with your help I can gather 10,000 photos of people holding a heart with something they love written on it to raise awareness for heart disease. I plan to publish a book similar to PostSecret when I have enough photos and donate the proceeds to foundations supporting heart disease.
Thank you for taking the time to check out the blog here, I will be posting photos as soon as I receive them.
This is for you Lauren although I never met you, you left a mark on my life.
Rest in Peace
If anyone is interested in reading Laurens other blog you can find it here
