StreetVIEW – The Secret Life of Things – By Laura Peischl

We’re delighted to publish Laura Peischl’s latest article to her StreetVIEW Column. Below you will find text by Laura describing the atmosphere as she meanders a local street market one Saturday morning. Beneath that you will find her fabulous still captures. We have put these together into a video showcase with music of Laura’s choosing to bring you the complete picture of her experience. This is not to be missed – over to you Laura (foreword by Joanne Carter).

“Strolling through the flea market on a Saturday at an early morning, means for a photographer, first of all observing. There are so many layers of interaction, so many aspects of life, encounters, stories, exchanges and even far fetched memories of one’s own life being brought to life.

I feel most attracted by objects of long use, old watches and jewelry pieces, plates and glasses of any kind and, most of all, cameras.

I cannot stop my imagination from going into fantasy mode, trying to invent a plausible story around each item my attention feels attracted to.

Is there someone who used to have this porcelain statuette standing on a chest for many years, his/her eyes resting on it every time when passing by?

How many hours of happiness or sadness, expectations or long seconds of waiting for something to happen, did this clock measure?

Which pictures of a family’s lifetime have been taken with this particular camera, where are the images, what turned out of the subjects?

I found a stand where, near many cameras, as many old pictures were displayed, and the seller tried to convince me, they belong together…. I instantly loved believing it was like this, it made my imagined experience credible for a while. Pretty lies are pretty no matter what, they create a short moment of stolen joy without harming anyone.

Every item has it’s own story, it’s secret life and I will never find it out, I buy it because it is to my liking, fully aware that it was discarded by someone, as not serving his/her expectations any more. But they fit mine and I want to give it a new life.

Why do we just stop wanting something that served us truthfully for a long time?

Why do we search for the new hoping it will shine brighter?

I ended up buying a lovely tea cup and, from a simple object that no one seemed to want any more, I made it to my personal favorite to start and end the day with, in an attempt to break it’s uselessness and bring it back to life again by making it witness of my life, by sharing with it the intimacy of having tea together”.