Beginning Monday, thousands of professional and amateur photographers in Kansas and across the nation will point and shoot their digital cameras at people, places and things.

They’ll shoot within a seven-day time frame through Sunday, May 18.

Their goal: to get published in “America 24/7,” a 320-page, large-format book scheduled for publication in November.

Publication will be competitive.

More than 1,000 professional photojournalists from 49 states and the District of Columbia have signed contracts and will be trying to produce images strong enough to make the cut.

Among them will be 20 photojournalists from across Kansas, including three from the Journal-World: Mike Yoder, Thad Allender and Bill Snead.

But it’s not just for professionals.

The project’s creators, Rick Smolan and David Elliot Cohen are inviting anyone with a digital camera to send them their photos. On the Internet, you can click on www.america24-7.com for instructions.

The “largest photo project in history” won’t end with “24/7.” The project organizers have announced they’ll follow with 52 smaller photo books that will illustrate each state, Washington, D.C., and New York City. Publication is projected for September 2004.

Before being offered a contract to shoot for “24/7” photographers were asked to submit a list of ideas.

“Honey, just go after this like you’re doing a book on Kansas,” Karen Mullarkey said when asked for parameters. “Anything that typifies Kansas … shoot it.”

Mullarkey, one of the books’ editors, has sat in the photo editor’s chair at Newsweek, Sports Illustrated and Rolling Stone magazines, to name a few. She began her career at Life magazine.

“You’ve got to get your group out covering Kansas,” she said excitedly over the phone. “We don’t want everybody falling over one another in your end of the state. An Elvis impersonator in Elkhart, good. Dorothy and Oz in Liberal … love it, love it.”

The Kansas shooters have assigned themselves subjects as diverse as: office time with Gov. Kathleen Sebelius; riding with a Topeka taxi driver; Kansas feedlots; shoppers at Cabela’s, the mega outdoor store in Kansas City, Kan.; life in Nicodemus; and a collection of outhouses in southeast Kansas.

“24/7’s” creators Smolan and Cohen’s first project, “A Day in the Life of America” was the country’s best selling nonfiction book of 1987.

They hired 200 photojournalists who fanned out across the country and spent 24-hours documenting America. They followed with 24-hour books on Japan, Russia, China, Australia and others.

The upcoming books will be published by DK publishers, a member of the Penguin Group.