What Is Left Behind — Stories from Estate Sales
To find out more about my book What Is Left Behind — Stories from Estate Sales, click on BOOKS in the heading.
To inquire about prints, please contact Ben Breard at the AfterImage Gallery (images@afterimagegallery.com 214-871-9140)
Beginning in 2015, I went to several hundred estate sales in Dallas, Texas, where I live. In many parts of the US, people use estate sales to dispose of their parents’ possessions after they die or move to assisted living facilities. In addition to photographing at the sales themselves, I also bought many inexpensive items that I studied later in my home studio.
Themes of memory and loss come forth in this work. The stark reality of life’s brevity pervades every estate sale, where children’s toys sit next to wheelchairs. Unique personal possessions tell the stories of people I never knew and could only wonder about. Every weekend at just about every sale, I saw poignancy, irony, history, and humor. In 2022 The New Yorker published two articles about estate sales. My photographs were used in both.
Yellow Door
Cowbow Songs
No Reception
Stetsons and Old Spice
Wedding Night Negligee
Painting Palette
Records
Playboy Collection
Empty Frame
Wedding Pictures
LBJ with Fish Hooks
Scrap Book
Golf Momentos
Mothers Day Gift
Marilyn Puzzle