Miranda July

Nov 15, 2012
Recently, on Instagram, I saw that Miranda July had become a verb when someone photographed a pair of her own red shoes that she had written on. The left shoe read, ‘Me’, the right, ‘You’ and her toes were pointing to one another. The caption read: “I’ve Miranda Julyed my flats.” You know you have an avant-guard influence when you’ve become a verb on Instagram.


As the author, filmmaker, and performance artist of many cult favorites, Miranda July is a name you’ve likely heard before. From her viral book launch website,
http://noonebelongsheremorethanyou.com/, to her award winning film, Me and You and Everyone we Know, Miranda’s works has wowed audiences in private and public ways. Her projects take you in slowly, begging self-reflection and inquisitiveness, and many of her performances involve audience participation and on-the-spot creation.

Even though she is young, (still under 40), I don’t think it’s too soon to call her a prolific artist. She continues to create while her new baby grows and maintains an accessible yet mysterious air about her. As a Makers Muse recipient, she is precisely the kind of quirky and contemporary intellectual that captures Kindle’s attention.  Her written works, some published by renowned publishing house McSweeny’s, are evidence of that.  Her audience seems to be made up of all kinds of people, around the world who share something in common: the desire to take a moment to reflect.

When we ask our recipients to share something with us for the blog, one of the things we offer them as an idea is a day-in-the-life portrayal. Miranda took this suggestion and made it her own by sharing with us excerpts from her personal Photo Booth diary. Here you’ll get to know her a little better: how she works, what she can’t work, and what moments in her day consist of. True to her artistic persona, Miranda’s Photo Booth essay gives us the feeling of closeness that we’ve come to know from her creations.

Stay in touch with Miranda’s work via her website and her Facebook page. Her next performance will be in Seattle on December 5th.

Photo Booth Diary by Miranda July

I use the “Photo Booth” function on my Mac almost daily, usually to communicate something to someone. Sometimes I use it instead of scanner because I don’t really know how to use a scanner and also I don’t have one. Over time these accumulated pictures become a very mundane sort of diary. Here are a few recent ones.
–Miranda July