Collections

We gather, we collect

I love seeing what people treasure and collect.  I have always collected objects, small treasures that only have value to me.  I spent hours carefully arranging and organising my tiny treasures.

‘Fancy Paper’

‘Fancy paper’ was huge when I was a little girl.  Carefully collected, bought and swapped the ‘fancy paper’ was nothing more than writing sets and notebooks with pretty pictures.  ‘Littley’s’ were my favorite; one inch tall notepads which I swapped with my classmates.  Envelopes with matching paper were stored with others in writing sets and the covers and cases of the sets were highly valued.  I still love the smell of them and just opening the envelopes throws me right back to my childhood.

My Mother is a collector too and she keeps a tiny museum in her memory box which she stores on top of her wardrobe.  I lost half a day rummaging through her treasures and taking photographs of my favorites.  She kept all the cards she received since she was a child right through the acceptance cards to her wedding, letters ticket stubs.

This is my very first Doll.  Once I had tired of her my mother picked her up and carefully packed her away.  The red collar belongs to a beloved pet ‘Hatty’ who died a few years ago.  My mom even kept a pony tail length of hair I had cut off which eerily still keeps the auburn colour I lost when I  reached my teens.

These 70’s cards are so sweet and so uniquely of their time.  I love how they capture who my mother was when she was young as well as showing intriguing glimpses of her life like young men, for instance, or parties.

I plan to photograph other people’s collections, other careful treasuries.  We can learn so much about each other just by seeing what little things we value.