Name: Before I Die
ISBN: 9781466857315

Candy Chang

After losing someone she loved, artist Candy Chang painted the side of an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood with chalkboard paint and stenciled the sentence, "Before I die I want to _____." Within a day of the wall's completion, it was covered in colorful chalk dreams as neighbors stopped and reflected on their lives. Since then, more than four hundred Before I Die walls have been created by people all over the world. This beautiful hardcover book is an inspiring celebration of these walls and the stories behind them. Filled with hope, fear, humor, and heartbreak, Before I Die presents an intimate portrait of the dreams within our communities and a chance to ponder life's ultimate question.

Before I Die

Nico J

This is an extremely inspiring project begun by Candy Chang, and what is even more amazing is how others feel spurred to greater heights and choose to engage in their own community goal. The layout of the book is fantastic, drawing the eye all over toward the color and font (a font which I love by the way, have to figure out what it is). I found myself yearning for larger, more colorful photos, but I feel that is an indication of the conditioning we feel about the media we consume; the staged and overwhelming feeling when in reality, photos are not always so gauche. I appreciated the diversity in the locations and was surprised at the variety. 

I did notice that certain locations did not have extra pages or dedicated stories - particularly, a few from Asian countries and other places which are in the middle of some serious cultural change. I wonder if it was a language issue (could not be translated; either way, I would still like to see the photos untranslated) or if what was written wasn't desired to be included in the book. Maybe I'm reading too much into it ....

The remix page was interesting, and the stats page was gorgeous and my favorite.

All in all, inspiring and fascinating!

Before I Die

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