A Brief History of the "1 Image 1 Minute" Project

This project is a contemporary recreation of Une Image Pour Une Minute, a project originally produced by French director Agnes Varda for presentation on French television in 1983. In Varda's version, a photographic image appeared on television (in-between network programming), and someone--a curator, photographer, or art historian--would speak about the image for one minute.


Here I have asked contemporary photographers, artists, historians, and others to select an image that has significance for them, and write or speak about it for the equivalent of 1 minute. The result is a a compelling and accessible means of gaining insight into other artists’ and photographers’ perspectives. The project is also a way of reactivating photo history, cultural literacy, and of offering a closer look at images than the mere fraction of a second that most contemporary images are afforded.

Glenn Phillips


Glenn Phillips, Curator
Photo: Phyllis Phillips, 1973


We'd like to think that powerful images are always the product of artistic genius, but more often than not it's the knowledge we bring to an image that makes it compelling. Here is an image of my mother being playful. When I look at photographs of my mother, I sometimes believe I know what she was thinking. But in this image, I know precisely what she was not thinking. Checking the date on this photograph, I discovered a secret: my mother is pregnant with me, but only by days, so she doesn't know it yet. I liked this picture anyway, but a simple piece of information and some quick math made me love it, because it allowed me literally to place myself inside the image. Now when I look at this picture I know that I'm right there too--can you see me?
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Micol Hebron