The First Photo Shoot!

I took my collections that I have made so far to the lighting studio at college where I tried to do a photo shoot that would be suitable for an auction-style catalogue. However, I only used tungsten lighting to light the table and my objects, and so therefore, these cast quite a large shadow around the object. I also only used a 18:55 lens which could not get close enough to the object to capture all the detail. So I am going to have to use a marco lens when I next do a photo shoot and probably use flash lighting instead of tungsten lights.

Pontefract Car Boot Sale

I attended Pontefract Car Boot Sale in Leeds on 6th April 2008. It was unlike any car boot I had ever been to before, there were some very commercial market stalls there as opposed to all car boot stalls, there was only a small section at the back of the field that was allocated for car boot vendors. However, because of this there seemed to be a real community there, the market traders especially knew each other and there was a lot of banter and chatting and gossiping going on.

2nd collection...

The second car boot sale I visited was on Stanley Road in Liverpool. Here I collected ornaments and ornamental figurines. Under this chosen topic I collected 14 items. I noticed when in Liverpool that the price of the items I purchased was overall lower than the previous car boot sale I'd been to, and no bartering was needed!

Unlike with the previous collection I did not create gallery style information cards for each of the objects, as I have now changed my concept slightly so that I will create an auction-style booklet in which all the objects will have photographs. I intend on having detailed information about the object/item alongside the photograph in the booklet. These will have to be as correct as possible and serious. I hope to exhibt the collections I've made at a car boot sale along with the auction-style booklets I will have created.

so far...

The first collection I made was in Ince Blundell near to my home town of Formby. The collection I made there was of children's toys. As this car boot sale was located in a fairly remote area in the 'country' the kind of things that people were selling were mainly bits of bric-a-brak, old bits of tat that they no longer wanted, many ornaments, children's toys and items of clothing.

I noticed that the price of the bric-a-brak was rather high, and so I had to do some serious bartering with some of the stall owners! It was quite a cheerful atmosphere nonetheless.

When I got the collection home I made information cards for each item. I did this with a slight sense of humour and so the cards take the mick somewhat. Here is a picture of the collection itself:

Car boot collections

For my final major project I have chosen to curate collections of object I collect from car boot sales around the country. I found inspiration to start my own collections when I attended my first car boot sale. I found the obects that were on sale intruiging, each one seemed to have a story to tell, layers of dirt from years of standing untouched, or from being passed from grubby hand to grubby hand.

These objects that were once sitting in a shop waiting to be purchased suddenly seemed so forlorn piled into carboard boxes or onto fold out tables in an unused muddy, puddly car park. Their stories changed then, and they will continue to chance whilst they are in my care. I intend on experimenting with curatorial practices, and pushing the boundaries of what we know as art and an exhibition.