A submission from Jordan Bickett

When I started shooting with a 4×5 I would always make amateurish mistakes like pulling the dark slide out before closing the lens, thus ruining the film in the holder. For no reason I kept the film that this happened to and was never developed on my self where I collected a pile of sheets that never got the chance of becoming an image due to my slip ups. But then I noticed the film changed color and tone and was ever so slightly day by day changing and becoming art all on its own. Now I shuffle the sheets and change which in on top and in what position in an effort to create more wonderful patterns and shapes. I’m so glad i have a compulsion to keep everything because sometime it takes on a life of its own.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from Kim P.

My grandmother has been a major part of my life since day one. I spent pretty much every weekend at her house as a child, sometimes with my younger sister, my cousin, or just by myself. I always had fun at my grandma’s house, dispite the fact that she had no “modern” toys. There were toys that my aunts played with when they were kids, and random things that my father had made in boy scouts. I distinctly remember a toy “Pac Bell” van that doubled as a bank that I was very into. We also enjoyed playing with an old typewriter pretending to work in an office and things like that. The only bike that was available was this old, metal thing with plastic wheels that im pretty sure was painful to ride but we did anyhow. This all being said, I know now where I get the whole pack rat thing from. Grandma never gets rid of anything. My grandma is now 95 and doing great. I have recently decided to gather up some of these items from my past and shoot them in the studio. I visited my grandma about a week ago and collected some of these items and explained to grandma what I was planning on doing, she just thinks im a funny artist, but was also looking foward to seeing the finished product. When presented the idea that she might be a pack rat, grandma just laughs and shakes her head. Cant really argue with a 95 year old!

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from John Cale

I see myself as a hermit crab in the way I am shedding my previous shell for one that is more befitting. What I mean by shedding my previous shell is that I completely left my former life in LA. Words my ex girlfriend said to me will always stagnate in my mind, “you’re leaving everyone that loves and cares about you”. I really left everything behind because I felt I was being suffocated, I left my family, a loving girlfriend, good trusting friends. I was really growing out of my shell and of course I was lonely and scared when I left but it’s been 9 months and the Bay Area is really starting to fit nicely as my new shell.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from Brittany

I recently moved from a large apartment in the Sunset district of San Francisco to an extremely small apartment, which doesn’t even have a living room, in the Mission district. This move has given me the opportunity, as well as forced me, to cleanse myself of unnecessary objects which I have held on for too long. I ended up giving two huge car loads of stuff to Good Will, and have continued to give more random things around the house that are not going to be put to use often enough, to local thrift stores. I have found that a good way to decide whether to keep something or not is to ask yourself…when was the last time I actually used that? If the answer is over a year ago…get ride of it! I realized when packing up my old apartment that there were things in the hall closet that I hadn’t used in the two years in which I lived there, so I gave them away. This strategy works especially well when trying to thin out my clothes…if there was a garment which I had not worn for a year (I always think that some occasion will present itself that that garment would be perfect for…but that usually doesn’t happen)…I got ride of it! Although I have successfully cleansed myself of many unnecessary stuff, I fear the pack rat inside of me will always be present when it comes to certain things. These “treasures” include: my collection of movie theater tickets, which come to at least 500 and date back to the original Lion King movie…my collection of scraps of beautiful and interesting paper that I may use for an art project some day (which I occasionally do)…or the six (or more) garbage bags worth of stuffed animals from my childhood that have been sitting in my parents garage since I was 14 that I refuse to let them give away. Maybe someday the time will come when I can part with these objects, but I’ve decided to take it in baby steps.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from BreeAnn S

Not that this is something that i have voluntarily “gotten rid of” or even permanently for that matter, but it is something that I have been forced to learn to live without, if only for a couple months. The way I see it, this project is about thinking about things we take for granted. Whether it’s having the physical space to store things we don’t need/use, having the money to buy that useless item that just sits on the shelf or having the full use of both of our arms, these are things that others may not have. Due to the fact that I have to wear a cast, and sometimes a sling I have not been able to do a lot of things I am used to doing, such as driving a car, cutting an onion, shuffling cards, or taking out the trash. These are things I have had to ask others to do for me, and it’s hard, I don’t like asking for help.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from Manuel

Recently I discarded boxes (six shoe boxes) full of old phone bills, credit card statements, bank statements, invoices, etc. that I have been piling up for years. It was a big project as I had to select what was important and what wasn’t, and I don’t own a shredder. I decided not to buy one, so, my wrists hurt all day after I finished. I am not sure why I kept all these records, especially now that I can access them on line. I might switch to automatic e-payment and start paying my bills on line – that would avoid cluttering. I also got rid of clothing, books, CD’s, magazines, and shoes – some of them almost never used, or read, or only played a couple of times. I am not sure why it was so liberating to get rid of these things. Furthermore, I am not sure why I had these things in the first place, what I was thinking at the time I bought them. Besides the obvious reflection that we live in an extremely consumerist society, that constantly bombard us to buy more, I thought about the nature of desire itself, how it works, how satisfying it is to get new things and how satisfying it is to get rid of them. Now I am thinking not only about the desire for things or concrete objects, but for the immaterial things that we desire as well…but that seems a little bit out of the scope of the project, and I have not much to say about that, yet.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from Carolyne

My mother, is a perpetual pack rat. In fact, she hoards everything. From an early age, I lived in a house that was very cluttery, and it was filled to the brim with material goods. As a child it didn’t really bother me, because as children go, life is relative. If the clutter didn’t directly affect me I really did not care either away about its existence.

What was interesting was the way my mother felt about the clutter. She was well aware of its existence, and was ashamed of the mess. So ashamed, that I was unable to bring any friends or guests over to play, I always would go to their houses to socialize. She rarely had house guests, and parties were out of the question. What boggles my mind is, that she was completely ashamed of it. Clutter negatively affected her life, yet she was completely unwilling to take any action against it. It was as if the accumulation of all of these possessions were an invisible wall, or blanket that shielded her from her demons.

Now, I know my mother has had a hard life, she is a very strong woman, and in my childhood I remember some pretty dark times economically and emotionally. Maybe all of that stuff was a material form of wealth, a way of physically reassuring herself that she was in fact wealthy. Or maybe she thought that all of the knick-nacks, storage bins, and clothes she could not get rid of were a physical manifestation of nostalgia. Physical memories that if they were thrown away, would represent the loss of memories and maybe even a lifetime forgotten.

Now, to bridge into my own life. It is interesting how the actions of the mothers affect the lives of the daughters. I like to kid myself and tell myself that the apple does fall far from the tree, that I can break this cycle of accumulation.

Ha, boy was I wrong.

I too, have a problem with throwing things away. I think that maybe, I might need this again. Maybe, I will actually wear this dress (even though every time I put it on I hate it). Maybe I will start this project, and so on and so forth. I like to tell myself that I am not my mother. However, it is fairly apparent I have the same problem. I think the solution is in humility, admitting that I too, have a problem with collecting crap. Realizing that I tend to keep things way past their usefulness is the only way I have been able to curb my need to keep. So it is in the realization that I am my mother, that I can break the cycle, and thus the apple rolls out into the sun.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from Jillian S

I found these gloves looking just like this on a street in Bakersfield a few years ago. They seemed to be reaching for each other as if they knew they couldn’t exist without being a pair. Its funny how things like that become seemingly useless to people if there is only one of them. You could replace one of the gloves with an oven mitt, but you probably couldn’t pull weeds with it.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from ren dodge

This cactus was a gift. I moved a few years ago and it didn’t survive. I have been holding onto its dried out shell ever since. It looked good, even in death.

Participant Guest Submissions

A submission from Derek J

So the ex-girlfriend(s)…It might be cliché but gosh darn it most of the clothes I wore at on point were from them/her. This might not seem too uncommon but at a certain point one must rid themselves of old comforts…They weren’t my taste anyway….ha!

Participant Guest Submissions