Year of the Sunrise
2022 2023
My name is Bugsy Sailor, and on January 1, 2019 I began a resolution to watch and photograph every sunrise of the year. I sought the sun, but what I found was so much more. So much, in fact, that I have yet to miss a sunrise.
What started as Year of the Sunrise has grown into life of the sunrise. To date I have photographed 1,615 consecutive sunrises, primarily from the shores of Lake Superior in Marquette County, Michigan.
Along the way, sunrise has slowed my approach to life, stretched my heart, introduced me to love, given spirit to my days, navigated me through a global pandemic, and has given witness to more beauty than I, or any amount of photos, can express. There have been -35º windchills, downpours, thunderstorms, and blizzards, but no matter how gray the day, the sun still rises.
While daily photos have been the tangible output of these sunrise years, it has never been about the photos. It has been about the wind on my face, the sand between my toes, and feeling the sunrise while being present in nature. No photograph of a sunrise is better than the experience of sunrise.
Latest updates:
- It only took 2.5 years, but 2020 is now fully published, a huge milestone for a project that never expected to go beyond 2019.
- Built a teaser for Sunrise TV
- No longer publishing photos as “drops”, learning that I can make faster progress in smaller batches
- 50% of this project has now been published.
- Added a purchase form for date requests
- Built out a page detailing my daily sunrise commute
- Still figuring out what to do for 2023
- Temperature averages are now being compiled across the entire project

2019
2020
2021
2022
May 15, 2022

Sunrise No. 1,231
Little Presque Isle
May 13, 2022

Sunrise No. 1,229
Shiras Park
May 15, 2021

Sunrise No. 866
Little Presque Isle
May 13, 2021

Sunrise No. 864
McCarty's Cove