PROJECT: CAR BOOT SALE 

The story

”We are at a Swedish car boot sale. There is excitement and anticipation in the air. The sellers have displayed their goods in the most attractive fashion and the buyers are drawn to the tables like insects to flowers. Everyone will come away with treasure in some shape or form”. JAN MALMSTROM

This book pays respect to car boot sales and all who participate in them.

 

This project was especially suited to me. I am a curious person. I like to chat to strangers. I like to take photographs. Documenting these car boot sales gave me an excuse to enjoy all these aspects of myself.

 

Background Note

I was about thirteen when I bought my firstcamera. At the time, in the mid-70’s, all cameras were manual and required rolls of fi lm. We had to cope with the technical and practical challenges of this: loading the film, having only 36 exposures in one roll, setting the camera manually for the light conditions, winding back and unloading the film and getting it developed at a lab and having to wait for the result before you could see anything. But I loved it. Nowadays, with digital cameras it is a much easier and faster process. But, when it comes to photographing people, photographers have been struggling with the same issues since the dawn of photography. It boils down to your capacity to interact with other people and their willingness to be photographed. No fancy camera equipment will help you with this. You cannot be afraid to communicate with people, with or without your camera, and in a situation like a car boot sale this becomes very obvious.

 

I currently live in the countryside outside Stockholm, Sweden.