...a picture needs memories to be an image...

November 15, 2003 10:41 AM

Time Tales: a collection of abandoned photographs, found at fleamarkets, thriftshops, or just lying on the street
posted by anastasiav (7 comments total)

Beautiful. I love this sort of thing.
posted by digaman at 11:08 AM on November 15, 2003

Last summer, I was analyzing the contents of a 20 cubic yard dumpster used by by a cleanout company. I was building up a general profile of the typical categories of waste so as to make recommendations about cutting down the volume of material thrown into the dumpster. Emptying the dumpster cost $500 a pop, and this was done sometimes 5 times a week - the yearly dumpster overhead represented 20-30% of gross yearly earnings.

Sometimes this task involved digging through heaps of junk - quite often cleaned out from people's attics and cellars. One day, I was astonished to see a cache of photographs of an old girlfriend - of seven years - with her previous boyfriend (who I had never met). There she was, about 19 years old, with a skinny rock dude in fake leopard skin pants and an early '80s mane of long feathered hair.

I left the pics in the dumpster.
posted by troutfishing at 11:09 AM on November 15, 2003

You're a better man than I. I would have sent them to her latest guy. (Er, unless you parted on good terms, of course. I hear some people manage that.)
posted by languagehat at 11:22 AM on November 15, 2003

I like the international flair of this collection; many of the other found photos pages seem very americocentric, or maybe that's just my last impression of it.

And the fabrics! Olden times must have been hella itchy.
posted by condour75 at 11:38 AM on November 15, 2003

Found Magazine (which has been posted here before) is wonderful for this kind of thing.
posted by hippugeek at 11:52 AM on November 15, 2003

There's something eerie, something comforting, something decentring about looking at all the photographs. Truly a wonderful slice of (mediated) life. Thanks a million, anastasiav!
posted by MiguelCardoso at 2:04 PM on November 15, 2003

great post, anastiav! nice site, thanks.
posted by madamjujujive at 6:19 PM on November 15, 2003