The car boot voyeur
NO prizes for guessing where James Dodd will be this Sunday. Another car boot sale.
He's been a regular at local ones for the last 15 months with his camera.
"Car boots are voyeuristic. People lay out all their things on the grass, including the presents they didn't want," he says.
"And then if one of their friends or family comes along and says 'But I bought you that' they say it got in by mistake!
"You do get a little peek into the lives of people. I suppose I know more about them than members of my own family!"
James, aged 25, from Gleadless, is an award-winning professional photographer and lecturer on photo-journalism exhibiting his car boot pictures, called Sunday Morning Sales, as part of the Sheffield Photographers Group Show he's organised at the Bank Street Art Gallery.
A dozen local snappers give their own take on Sheffield - from Andy Greaves' exploration of Englishness to Luke Avery photographing a different person every day of the year.
Sunday Morning Sales is also a project. "It started as a way to keep me sharp in between other projects and assignments. But eventually it developed into a more personal journey to understanding the value of goods and perception of quality.
"People drive up in cars crammed with the remnants of their lives. The books they've read, the clothes they no longer wear, the hobbies they no longer pursue.
"Parts of their personality glimmer from the boots of their cars and are spread out on their decorating tables and picnic blankets on the floor."
Some people take stuff which would otherwise go into a skip, to re-cycle, others for charity. Occasionally he sees a sign explaining they are saving up for their wedding.
Each photograph in the exhibition is in a frame bought in a car boot. The original picture acts as the backing board.
By the end of the season James will rent his own pitch and flog off all the things he has bought at boots over the last 15 months. Then he will take pictures of people buying from him.
"When the new season starts I hope I will have enough picture frames for a mobile photographic exhibition which I shall be taking around car boots," he says.
Then they'll be for sale. Could they end up in a car boot? It would complete the cycle.
James is photographer in residence at the gallery and has put on a number of shows featuring others' work besides his own. With 500 photographers at work in Sheffield, his website www.photosheffield.org.uk lists a wide range of exhibitions and has increased the profile of photography in the city.
The exhibition runs through August.
Got a view? Leave a comment below.
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Thursday 09 February 2012
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