Before I die i want to...

Hearing hundreds of different answers to this question from hundreds of different people made the good people at "before i die i want to..." wonder "What make some people more aware of their own mortality than others? What motivates people to take action in their lives? What values do we hold as a society? And what values do other societies around the world find important?"

The creators, Nicole Kenney (Brooklyn, NY) and ks rives (Chicago, IL) keep their Polaroid cameras handy, taking portraits wherever they go to add to the collection. They snap the photo while the subject is saying what they want to do before they die, getting them in the act of stating their desire.

Nicole and ks then request that the subject writes his or her statement on the Polaroid starting with the words “Before I die I want to....” As the subjects are signing the release form, the artists ask them to include their emai so they can contact them in 10 or 20 years to make sure they made good on their commitment.

Pretty heavy stuff but what a fantastic project. You can check out more here, trust me the words above have not done this project justice... they have hit people up with the hard hitting questions in both India and the USA not to mention people in Hospice, which i find truly amazing... A human being on deaths door reflecting on what if... Its a brave question to ask and a even braver one to answer.

Translations for the shots above are as follows. Indian Child "Before I die I want to study". Chelsi (the old man) "I feel like I have done everything I wanted to do"