I have always collected and hoarded objects. I went to Disneyworld at age 9 and kept an un opened soap in its packaging until this day, my brother had no interest in this kind of thing. I'm not saying that is particularly special but it just helps explain what kind of person I am I guess. Quite a thoughtful and careful person who sees tremendous value in certain objects. The first thing I did when I went to France was buy a 'Royale with cheese' because of the Pulp Fiction reference, the packaging is also kept in perfect condition. My first memory is of eating swedish fish in New York City aged maybe 3. I couldn't bring myself to eat the last one nor throw away the packaging from my last trip to the states. I tend to keep hold of a lot of silly little objects which have memory attached to them, for me its incredibly important. I also pick up a lot of things from the street which catch my eye. I also tend to get so drunk I can't remember the night but have a pocket full of stuffed with an assortment of found objects from the night before which help piece everything back together. The point I'm making is that I think about things meticulously and love to keep/study treasured objects which may or may not have any importance but dictate an equal amount of importance towards me and their relevance in my life. when the project was about us, our living spaces and what they say about us, I thought my room for all its total ordered chaos and piles upon piles of collected stuff, must say something poignant about me.
I decided the best way to tackle this kind of subject matter was not to make any photographs of my room and it's mess but rather take out a selection of objects and create an inventory of what I owned. By documenting them in a very formal and respectful way which totally gives each item respect and personality, I was creating a visual metaphor almost for my head and how I perceive these collected possessions. At first I had thought I might draw each object but when taking some pictures of them it became immediately clear that to take each out of its environment of my bedroom, photograph in a clinical environment where it was pure documentary photography with no distractions was the only real way to create this visual inventory. whilst deciding upon my objects and what I was going to use I came across a catalogue which my mother had written. It had always meant a lot to me that my mum had written a book documenting such a beautiful and famous body of work as the Hudson River School paintings. Her career was pretty non existent through most of my with her just doing small jobs mostly in catering. To learn she had a high paid exciting career before i was born, travelling from New York to Paris by first class Concorde, after putting away years of studying art history made me extremly proud. I found this book and whilst looking through it realised just how much it meant to me that she had given me the only copy she had. I wanted to design something which followed and honoured what she created in 1987. I would follow a very strict pattern of form and layout taken directly out of her book.
The book was already a catalogue so it was actually a very fitting way to realise my own inventory process, a book documenting my room with photographs on the right and description on the left. By laying them out in such a structured and controlled way I'm elevating them to a level of respect and importance which ultimately gets across what I'm trying to say, that each one is equally valued. The layout breathes value into the items by being in such a strict catalogue format. I set up a makeshift studio relying on natural light in my garden and set about photographing everything. I wanted the images to have a kind of imperfect haze about them with a very slim point of focus so I used my 35mm slr which was my Grandfathers camera. I was really pleased with how the photographs came out.
I now had something which I was working towards and could use to reference every decision which I needed to make against the original book. When I knew this I knew that there could be no corners cut , the book would have to be bound exactly the same, same colour, same quality, same spine lettering and ultimately a name which respected and gave a head nod to to the original book. I decided upon "observation through inventory: an introspective of fifty" because it followed "The hudson river school :congenial observations" and did exactly what the title said. It was an introspective observation on myself through the process of an inventory of fifty photographed objects. Looking at the spines and title pages next to each other, I think this becomes most apparent.
The book turned out pretty well and I'm really happy with it. Unfortunately I didn't have time to attach the image to the front which would complete it fully. This was a scanned copy of my mothers original book, with a gold leafed boarder to mimmic the front of it perfectly. Visually, it would then litterallly be a book within a book which I thought tied up the end quite nicely.
