The thought that spawned a thousand photos was by filmmaker and photographer Brett Brownell. In 2007, he came up with the idea that as a symbol of peace and the cooperation of many nations, people the world over would, at the same minute in time, take a photo of what was happening where they were.
A World in Sync
This year the photos will be taken at 09.09.09 in zone +9 GMT at 9:09. Partakers and peace lovers in various countries will find out what time it will be in their time zone so that times all over the world correspond to 9:09 am in Japan and Korea. With timers set and shutters at the ready photographers: amateur, professional and even camera phone gurus will be representing their creativity.
The idea behind World Wide Moment is to have a global awakening even if it is for just one minute. One possible impact would be hundreds, possibly thousands of people considering peace and their fellow mankind in countries spread from one side of the planet to the other. Though the idea started small, last year in 2008 people from 20 countries participated by sending photos to the website based program. This year people from 100 countries have pledged to be a part of the global moment.
A Yearly Celebration
With the hope that World Wide Moment will be an annual occurrence that is ever expanding Brownell and his team are sponsored by Fractured Atlas. The group provides support and services for artists and arts organizations. With their help and the donations they receive from interested parties World Wide Moment keeps their site updated year round with blogs and articles about photography, aid organizations and thoughts on peace.
Social media sites like Twitter and Facebook have helped the people of World Wide Moment explode their idea to the far reaches of the internet with little effort. The growing trend of people sharing their thoughts and activities via sites that provide instant updates has allowed the popularity of the peaceful movement to flood websites and blogs. The connectivity of people to the internet and thus people to people has allowed for a growing sense of community even for those thousands of miles apart. This expanding consciousness toward humanity will hopefully instill an accountability that affects the way people live.
Trying to create global peace and unification through a yearly photo shoot that lasts a mere minute may seem like an impossible mission. Considering the jump in popularity since last year and the cult following that is growing every day the possibilities for World Wide Moment 2010 and on seem infinite.
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