Small Monuments

A popular weekend activity, for the bargain hunter or the merely curious, is attending the ubiquitous estate sale. My attraction to photographing domestic objects has led me to haunt such events, seeking out the less significant of the possessions left behind. I know nothing about the former owners beyond what I glean from their homes and their possessions. The small objects that I carry away are typically worn, dusty or patched. Were it not for my intervention they would be sent to the landfill and forgotten. But I view the markings as traces of the histories of these things. I use these artifacts to create small monuments, temporary memorials to the people who handled them and kept them close for many years. Using sunlight reflected by a hand-held mirror, I photograph my subjects against a black background. I intend the quality of light to evoke objects in a household setting, while the isolation removes them from their original context. In this way I aim for images that have one foot in the world of daylight and another in the void. By arranging and photographing these objects, I gain my own connection to the belongings of strangers and I find myself unwilling to part with them.