“Almost everyone has their own collection of pictures -the earlier ones may be organized in packets or drawers, some may be in albums, others scattered around in a disorderly fashion but impossible to throw away” (Wells, 2015)

A Question for Seller is a strange project; collecting family images that are sold on eBay, and displaying them along with the response from the seller as to how they had come to acquire the images.

Firstly, it is hard for me to imagine that people would but their own family images up for sale in such a frivolous manner. I understand that images fall into our hands from finds in old houses and sometimes charity shops but the deliberate sale of personal images I doubt.

In the late early 2000’s it was the common cry you heard in the office when unwanted items were talked about “put in on eBay” and we all had watched TV such as Bargain Hunt which leads us to believe that is value in junk.

This leads me to question the meaning and explanation around the collections – particularly if the question was asked before the sale. Could the seller not just invent an interesting meaning to what the images were to raise their value or just promote the sale. Other than accompanying text meaning to the photo’s come from what an individual viewer brings to them – their imagination, personal experiences etc.

As with all “art” of course it value is increased by placing it on a gallery wall, there are many examples of this in the art world Damien Hirst’s infamous sheep and a lot of the work of Andy Warhol – on cynical level her was just recreating what already existed, Brillo-pad Boxes, Campbell Soup tins etc