part 2 of recently rescued estate sale images

magic?

I recently started reading The Life-Changing Magic Art of Tidying Up, a small, beautiful book by Marie Kondo. Many of my friends have told me that adopting Kondo's art of tidying has truly changed their lives for the better. Magic!

Reading this book dovetails perfectly with two things that are going on in my life right now. The first thing is kind of big. Pretty big. Well very big, I guess. Eddie and I have decided to move to Portland! For eight years now we've been toying with the idea and traveling back and forth between the City of Roses and the City of Fountains. We've lived in the latter for 35 years now. So, yeah, extraordinarily big. Much more on this to come. 

The other thing is that I've been revisiting my "Estate Sale" pictures for various reasons. I've discovered some that I initially edited out of the project that I really do like, and I've trimmed off the Hipstamatic-imposed raw edges, which I really don't like so much any more. (Click here to see the work featured on Lens, the New York Times photo blog.)

So, while I begin to prepare for the move, which will involve more downsizing, de-cluttering and simplifying (and the magic involved therein), looking back at the treasures with which I parted five years ago gives me some comfort. I survived it, and I'll survive more of it - maybe I'll even be better off with the dramatically changed-for-the-better life my friends tell me I'll have! 

on the radio

I'm happy to say I did a fun interview with Sylvia Maria Gross for the local NPR station's show "KC Currents." It's about my Estate Sale photographs.

Here is the link to the KCUR website, which has a link to the show itself.

estate sale series

I finally finished up my Estate Sale images today. It has been fun going back to work on them. Now that we may have finally sold our house (fingers crossed that all goes well with the inspection) these pictures hold even more meaning to me.

petapixel

Estate Sale Portraits featured again here.

new york times lens bog

Amid all the excitement of the fundraiser, my Estate Sale Portraits were featured on the NYT Lens Blog! My fifteen minutes of fame came on Friday morning. Thank you James Estrin and Kristen Joy Watts for making that happen! I'm thrilled beyond words to have my work included in this amazing venue.

Please check out the article here.

last of the estate sale pictures

Making these pictures was initially a way for me to work through the emotional challenge of getting rid of so many things and moving on to the next chapter in my life.

But in the end, I found myself thoroughly enjoying the process. I stayed set up in the front yard all three days of the sale, usually from 9 to 5.

And, much to my surprise, I made a body of work that I actually really like. I have visions of photographing at more estate sales in the coming months.

Here are several more of my favorites.

hammock

Rest in peace, John.

snowglobe

slide projector

albums

ties

capsela toys

cookie jar

photograph

games

dump truck

ceramic bowl

lamp

mixing bowl