Okay, this is pretty cool. A group of friends from Santa Barbara High School have been re-enacting the same photograph of themselves at the same location with the same facial expressions and props every 5 years since 1982, and we love them! The first photo was snapped after graduation when John Wardlaw invited his close friends including John Dickson, Mark Rumor, Dallas Burney and John Molony up to his grandparents’ cabin at Copco Lake in Northern California to enjoy each others’ company for a month of summer break. Before the trip ended, the boys used a self-timer to take a group photo sitting on a fence with the mountains in the background. The boys joked around that they should re-take the photo every five years, but thought the possibility of knowing each other for 20 years is slim. The photo was a way for the guys to keep in touch and reminisce about “the good old days”, and twenty-five years later, the friends are still getting together to keep the Five Year Photo Project alive.

Getting together to snap the shutter is more difficult than it used to be for the guys, especially for two who now live in different parts of the country, but whether or not they have to drive all night like Mark Rumor did because his flight was canceled, the photo has become a priority. The guys do their best to recreate the original photo as accurately as possible, but sometimes the details get lost in time – but we don’t hold it against them! We are a little disappointed the guys started opting to wear teeshirts, but we understand the repercussions of ageing may have been considered (sorry boys…it happens to us all). Also, the original photo was shot using film, but today, the guys can take it easy with a digital camera and review the results instantly (if this was always the case, they would have never let the slip-up happen with John Molony and his lack of sunglasses in photo #5). But hey, who really cares?! We love this project because it represents a fun concept and has a great story behind it about a bunch of guys who have remained in touch many years after high school. Who really cares if the photos are not recreated perfectly, right? They are whoa-worthy enough in our books. The photos are currently printed and displayed on the wall of the cabin.