Junk Drawer: What We Leave Behind

Description:

Junk Drawer: What We Leave Behind explores the personal objects that were once treasured by their owners yet were ultimately consigned to online "junk drawer" sales. Photographer and coeditor Barbara Von Eckardt acquired these random assortments from estate remnants on eBay and has documented their contents through evocative, sepia-toned images. In doing so, she has breathed new life into items that the world had deemed valueless, but that hint at the stories and identities of those who once owned them.

In addition to the photographs, Von Eckardt and coeditor Sander L. Gilman have gathered essays by scholars across disciplines, each offering a unique perspective on how such everyday objects can carry profound meaning. The result is a "junk drawer" of reflections, as varied and thought-provoking as the artifacts themselves. It is a moving testament to the emotional and cultural resonance of ordinary things--and an invitation to look more deeply at the objects surrounding us.

Review Quotes:

With Junk Drawer: What We Leave Behind, Sander Gilman and Barbara Von Eckardt have done a wide array of academic fields and interdisciplinarity an immense service. They demonstrate, creatively, with a focus on photography, how one can turn the (supposedly) normal and unexceptional into an exemplary scholarly project. Oh what we take for granted! Such things--such as the pictures and 'ephemera' in the "junk drawer"--just might be uncut intellectual gems. Gilman and Von Eckhardt have assembled a sparking team in illuminating their rich questions, observations and discussions.