Noah Kalina

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Noah Kalina (b. ~1980) is a New York City photographer who gained Internet fame in late 2006 for his viral video entitled everyday.

Kalina has been taking one picture of himself every day beginning on January 11, 2000, when he was 19. The video shows all of the pictures through July 31, 2006 flash by chronologically, in rapid succession, with an original piano piece by musician Carly Comando playing in the background. Throughout the entire compilation, Kalina's face, which is always in the center of the video, remains perfectly emotionless. Following a brief and less successful flirtation with video-hosting service Vimeo, the video was uploaded to YouTube on August 27, 2006.

Everyday was featured on a season 3 episode of VH1's Web Junk 20 and can also be seen on 2007 TV commercials for Roadrunner, Time Warner Cable's Internet service. Additionally, everyday was the feature of a New York Times article by Keith Schneider on March 18, 2007, in which William A. Ewing, director of the Musée de l’Elysée, is quoted: "Noah’s video represents a phenomenal amplification not just in what he produced and how he did it, but how many people the piece touched in such a short period of time," said Mr. Ewing, the author of "Face: The New Photographic Portrait" (Thames & Hudson). "There is nothing comparable in the history of photography."[1]

In December 2006, Kalina posted a 21-piece Flickr photoset showing celebrities posing next to him. He was joined by the likes of Paris Hilton, Lance Bass, David Hasselhoff, Jenna Jameson, Weird Al Yankovic and others. Television network VH1 had commissioned Kalina to come backstage at the VH1 Big in '06 Awards. In the televised version of the ceremony, several of the pictures taken were shown before and after commercial breaks.

As of January 2007, everyday has enjoyed almost 4.5 million views on YouTube and is the 51st most-watched video of all time. Many parodies have spawned, portraying Kalina in both a positive and negative light.

[edit] Criticism

Shortly prior to the release of Kalina's video project, another video following almost the exact same format had been released by a woman named Ahree Lee. Lee's video never hit mainstream popularity, and users who knew of its existence were quick to allege that Kalina had "stolen her thunder." However, Lee's picture compilation only spanned three years, meaning that Kalina did in fact start earlier (and therefore, did not copy the concept) – most likely, it was mere coincidence that both individuals had engaged in the same project. In an interview with a Washington Post writer, Kalina claimed that Lee's project did inspire him to compile his and put it online, however[2].

Many users have commented that the background music in everyday is strikingly similar to "Truman Sleeps" by Philip Glass, a musical score used in the 1998 movie The Truman Show.