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I’m one of those Americans
A garage sale is the sale of miscellaneous household goods, often held in the garage or front yard of someone’s house.
“My good friend David McGowan has been working on a very personal photo essay since last summer. He’s been documenting garage sale culture in West Michigan as the economy continues to decline and people reevaluate what they truly need and what has to be sold. What’s surprising is that as bad as things seemed only six months ago, the bad news has only gotten worse and there isn’t a whole lot of hope that things will improve. At least not for a while. People like to say that when the country gets a cold, Michigan gets pneumonia, and that certainly holds true these days. Things are bad in the rest of the country and even worse in Michigan.
I’m One Of Those Americans is respectful and honest and taps into our collective anxiety and resignation. What’s unnerving is that in this story, I fear we’re only at Chapter One and that the rest of the story is going to get a whole lot darker.”
Brian Widdis
Detroit, MI
Photographs: David McGowan
Website: www.humanfiles.com
Kathleen, yeah I know, but no worries. You’d think it could be, but maybe this isn’t really a politically charged essay. I like the comments, but I’m not much fun when it comes to criticism, because I’m likely to agree. And it’s not a controversial essay, but more a timely story many folks can identify with. Actually DAH tosses out the political bait once in a while, and I take, but not much transpires. Considering the historic significance of the election, the platitudes, the inspiring speeches, the economy, the hope, etc., not much has come up around here regarding the actual governing, and that’s the most important part.
But to answer your question, man, I don’t know – I think people have a natural tendency to keep as much as they can, wherever they can. But the situations are so case by case, it’s really hard to generalize. Let’s try to guess anyway. Take the man with the truck. I think that if he’s settled into a full-time job, he doesn’t even consider selling his truck. Unless he’s really inspired by something other than his lack of personal finances, the truck sits in his yard, and it’s always in the back of his mind that he’s going to restore it. I’m speculating of course, but it feels like a pretty good guess.
Or a different situation, the woman holding the photograph of the man in the electric scooter. The day I was at her sale I explained what I was shooting, and she told me she had sold a scooter the day before. It was her husband’s, who had died of cancer six weeks before the sale. She ended up unemployed, the result of choosing to take care of him during his final days. She said that she cried for six hours after she sold it. I left that sale a bit beside myself, and went back the next day to ask if she had that photo so I could take a portrait. I think that’s the kind of sentimental object that is best to choose not to keep.
Regarding Goodwill, I don’t think they’re affected, or I should say I don’t think the least fortunate are affected by their lack of product. These least fortunate are the ones doing the actual shopping at the garage sales, so they’re likely to find a better deal at a garage sale than Goodwill, if they’re willing to search for it.
Something those having garage sales may not know, but I’ve heard – it’s more profitable to donate to a charity and write it off than to have an actual sale, but where’s the charm?
I did have an outstanding thing happen when I went to Goodwill the other day. I found four pair of pants, all brand new, all clean, for $3.29 each. Considering the tough times we’re in, a place like Goodwill didn’t seem to be hurting for products.
So will there be plenty of garage sales when we see better days? Of course. We’re a country of consumers. My study simply attempts to make note of what some are doing with their current situations, in response to times that are tougher than usual.
so long..
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wC9e_9XpnKQ&feature=related
i’m just starving YOUNG TOM …
that’s all…
:(
… but u make me forget so very much…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T86tKSEdLpQ&feature=related
…. it aint me you looking for….
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PCvVNAtaiUg&feature=related
young tom
March 18, 2009 at 12:32 am
Hmmm, Panos, that last shameless plug reminded me of the guy on the street corner the other day with the sign that read, “Why lie, I need beer money.” Getting your book, the hardcover, wrap.
THANK U TOM….
again, my shameless plug , below… :)))))))
http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/610452?utm_source=TellAFriend&utm_medium=email&utm_content=610452
Okay. Firstly, I have to admit that I cried when I watched the essay. Secondly, I cried when I watched the essay a second time. Thirdly, I hate commenting in the middle of the fucking thread when I’ve had to be away from my computer all day. The comments are still immediate and BuRN my soul and ever-hungry intellect, but I feel like I’ve missed the previews, cut-ins, interjections, and cast reviews, interviews, and reporter commentary…my fucking DVR is apparently BROKEN…
But BuRN is my crack…I can’t turn it down, it’s there, on speed-dial, an ever-ready click to give me a hit…I need it, but it drains me, intoxicates me, bewilders and enchants me…challenges me against other needs more pressing for survival, such as, water, sleep, food…But it offers me nourishment in a completely different way.
I wake up and I BuRN. I edit and I BuRN. I blog and I BuRN. Fuck, I check my email, all the while BuRNING and fucking facebooking at the same time. Not that I am cheating on you, BuRN, I just have to get my other fixes as well…
Ok…sorry about my “FUCKing” tirade and for sabotaging the comment space (Dave McGowan, I am touched by and in love with your essay)…but I do have comment on the brilliance of DAH at this point. David Alan Harvey, you are one man who claims to be nothing special…but you have created a special and important forum with BuRN. You challenge us constantly, immensely, (and I’m quite sure) indefinitely… To share your vision, in what you see, in your wanting to educate others, in showing beauty and art and circumstance and personal, static, unheard of, romantic, abhorring, unrelatable subjects to tugging at heartstrings I didn’t know existed…I love BuRN, for it is a new home to me….
All this said, it exhausts the fuck out of me to read 101 comments before I get the chance comment myself. So, sometimes, I don’t. Fuck it….if that’s selfish, so what. I’m tired but I want my opinion to be heard. Back to the work at hand…
David McGowan, I did read many of the comments prior to posting this, and I echo many when I say that I felt the American experience here. The edit, the music, the backdrops against which the images were played off of, the pace, the voice over…all made me recognize myself. I am this experience. You are this experience. We are this experience. There is something so relatable…middle-class poverty at it’s best…trying to step up….not renewing, but trying to attain, get a glimpse of, realize what we call the “American Dream.” This is what life for middle America has become. And it’s not towering hotels, Prada, and trust funds…it’s taking care of your neighbor’s dog when they are out of town. It’s helping a friend when they are broken down on the highway at 3 in the morning. It’s being there to help when you’re parents split and new routines need to form. It’s helping a friend’s mom tag items at her garage sale, so she can pay for Timmy’s summer camp. It’s making popcorn for the kids you babysit for when you come over for movie night. It’s firing up the grill and crackin’ beers with your best friends over memories past and hopes for what’s to come.
IT’S HELPING EACH OTHER OUT IN HOPES FOR WHAT’S TO COME.
These are memories I see when I watch your essay…they are not necessarliy mine, but that of the collective American…what is the American Dream and how came it to be seems like a myth, some intangible concept upon which this country was founded…How did the arrow fall so far from the mark?
David McGown, your essay touched me and I thank you. I’m sorry that I didn’t read all the comments prior to commenting myself, but your essay was my crack, some reading helped with the fix, here’s my comment, and there it is. You are very talented and I look forward to seeing more of your work.
Til next time fellow BuRNERS…which will be tomorrow, ya know…got to get my fix…
BOB….DAVID
i do not recall seeing that sign picture with the road running off into the background as part of the essay that was to be edited…i should have remembered that picture from awhile back, but i certainly did not take it out…i like it too….should we consider getting it back in?? …. i remember now it was a great closer in one of the earlier versions of your essay…
Bob, i saw your comment regarding the ability to interact after i had written to Stoop (with not much time, i am skimming fast)…i hope you read my comment to him because you were feeling the same…
David M., i hope you know i was teasing about politics…i doubt we disagree on much…..my grandparents were salt of the earth self reliant Iowa farmers..Republicans of course for just one reason: everyone should take care of themselves….of course, the second generation of that same family later became very dependent on government subsidies to survive as small farmers..still, they thought of themselves as self reliant, hard workers, and hated the thought of the government helping “welfare mothers” in the “big cities” which was their main issue against the Democrats which the whole wing of my side of the family became after leaving the farm life and “moved back east”….when i go visit my Iowa relatives now, we do just have to stay away from politics…we actually disagree on nothing substantial on issues, but the methods on HOW society operates or gets “fixed” is a different vision…as i travel around the country now working with families, from all sides of the political spectrum, it seems that this is pretty much the way the whole country is divided…we all want the same thing, but have different ideas on the best way to get there…
cheers, david
Nice work. I really felt a strong connection with all of the subjects. Well done!
So great to see David’s work honored on Burn. Thank you David Alan Harvey for bringing this to a wider audience and thank you David McGowan for this project.
“I wake up and I BuRN. I edit and I BuRN. I blog and I BuRN. Fuck, I check my email, all the while BuRNING and fucking facebooking at the same time. Not that I am cheating on you, BuRN, I just have to get my other fixes as well…”
Well, DAH, you’ve arrived. Your magazine has become a verb.
David (AH): no worries amgio, i read your response….and my frustration with being unable to ‘interact’ with it is NOT a criticism of David McG’s story…or Burn at all :))…just for me, when it’s photographs (and for me, everything so far, except the homeless ‘film’) have been photographs, like small books…with or without words, with or without sound/music/ambience…so, that’s why, when i see pics, i need to finger them, run with them…the way i look at a photo book, or read a book of poetry: never linearily, but once through the 1st or 2nd time, then i jump all over the place :)))…but no worries, i know as technology evolves, so too the stories :)))…
and as for the ‘missing’ pic…i guess David McG left that beauty on the cutting room floor…i always loved it, though it was a great intro or exit shot…wide sky, long, twisting road, a solitary sign….oh, well, maybe he’ll use next version…but i also know the oddity and the photographer-specific thoughts about edits :)))…it’s David’s lovely work, not my own ;)))
cheers
bob
Well David, you know know the editing process. I like that shot of the small sign too, but when evaluating strength, others won out with consideration for this show, though I can’t exactly say why. I could bring it back but wouldn’t know what to sacrifice, so maybe it’s not so important that I start chopping this up now.
David, I wouldn’t care if you were serious about politics. I’ve probably lead you down a path to think I’m more to the right than I actually am, but that’s just my idea of fun (I know, I’m a barrel of monkeys.) I’m gaining a disgust for political parties, being that their end-game seems to be simply to grow government, but if I had to align myself with one, (sigh) I’d have to say I’m a Libertarian minus the isolationism. So I guess we’ll take it from there.
But when O’s honeymoon is officially over and he starts to own the results of the bills that he’s signed, do make a post about that, because I think it will be some inspired conversation.
DAVID (DAH) & DAVID MCG:
i left comments here this morning and for some reason, nothing i write shows up now…i have no idea what is happening, but i am very frustrated…i’ll try to write later when i am home…there must be some ping problem between burn server and the provide that services our school’s internet access…..but nothing i write now comes through (including my comment for Young tom)…..urrrrrrrrrrrrrr
David McG
heh, the one i was poking fun at with the controversy/hornets comment was me. Don’t even get me started on politics ;))
So, it would seem as one already at the lower end of the feeding chain, David (and most photographers), that you can say with authority that Goodwill is doing fine, thank you very much. *wink-wink*…actually one reason i was musing about that is because here in Costa Rica things are changing quite a bit also. I mean, hello, the recession shares something with the world wide web..it’s the WWR. It seems to me that economizing is becoming chic, something that’s not just personal, a crime committed in secret against a culture of excess, but is now coming out in the open. I hear friends who would never have admitted buying from surplus stores bragging about their finds. Others who would never have done so saying, “I can’t afford it this month”. Others saying, “Let’s cook at home together instead of going out. it’s too expensive and besides I’m cutting calories”. The recession has affected my lifestyle a great deal since the company i worked for was recently sold and i was suddenly out of a job though kept on in a lesser capacity to manage the previous owner’s financial affairs. And i was terrified, worried about how my lifestyle would be compromised. But i find that things are much simpler. Sometimes i feel nostalgia for the good old days of gluttony but i recognize that those days were the aberration, this is a return to some kind of balance for which i feel a sense of rightness.
Your stories are very touching. The one that got me was the girl in the wedding dress. When she had it on, the look on her face was so self-conscious, brave, almost giddy.But giddy with what? hope? i don’t know. The truck was another one and this story here about the scooter..this essay is more than a pretty face and it’s about way more than just the USA. There might not be so many garage sales in other parts of the world but there is still a common experience shared globally that goes beyond any one neighborhood or group of friends. This is what’s occurring to me today..about what we ALL share, the guilt, the reality, the hope for our collective futures and well being.
Sorry if this is not particularly coherent..i am in a bit of a rush this morning but did not want your nice long reply to my question go unanswered.
CARRIE:
What else can i say? FUCK YES!!!!
best~
kat
Kathleen, one more note before I have to take off for the day. If there’s something that remotely resembles a political message here, it’s that a recovery will come as the result of resilience and ingenuity of citizens and small businesses, not the result of the actions of a government. (And quite possibly in spite of it.)
Carrie, I’m a bit embarrassed when I hear that people cry when seeing this (probably because I’m so void of emotion) but I think I touched the right chord here at the right time and it resonates with people. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts!
David McGowan,
There’s no need to be embarrassed, and I don’t cry all that often, but the essay, like you said, hit a chord with me. I’ve been thinking a lot about the “American Dream” over the last few years, and the fact that it seems like a longshot at best, for most, makes me sad. So many Americans here are complacent in every capacity, settling for jobs they loathe to just pay bills, staying in unhappy marriages and relationships to, well, I don’t know why exactly, and following what society deems to be right for them instead of following their hearts and passions. I know that your essay was more about the effects of the recession to the common folk, and I get that, but I think that is also related to the out-of-reach American Dream. The “American Dream” to some simply means to be able to live relatively carefree, without having to worry that the paycheck won’t be able to pay for food or the mortgage or new shoes for the kids. It’s being able to hold onto that truck from your 16th birthday and go fishing with your friends on the weekend and buying the name brand over the generic one. Maybe what fueled their dreams was to live simply, with sentimental possessions that are physical manifestations of memories and goals achieved. This America is not the one that I was led to believe existed when I was a child…do we call that a loss of innocence…THE loss of innocence? This different world that we now live in is not without hope, however. I will always believe in this country and the people that tread on its soil. Hope can be an unstoppable force… there is strength in believing and power in knowledge…what we do with it is up to us…
I do have to give a special thanks to my friend Lux Land for letting me use her song. She’s super talented and has a new album coming soon – be sure and watch for it:
http://www.myspace.com/luxland
With all the talk of usage rights, etc. I think it’s best to reach out locally, ask permission, and give credit when credit is due!
david mc.
saw this recently http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/scenes_from_the_recession.html
it’s flat.. hollow and completely sanitory to me.. where are the people suffering?
someone got paid for it though.. many probably..
have you shown the piece here to any editors or had any interest in it for publication?
it is a timely essay and i’d really hope that something is going to happen with it.. throw the link out to 10 national newspapers in the u.s. and u.k. and see what happens?!
d
That’s good advice David. I’ll get this around to newspapers. Of course any editors here that see this are welcome to contact me.
I think I’d like to follow up with an essay about the “tea parties” that are growing in number, which are basically revolts against corporate bailouts, wasteful government spending, and the taxes that will follow as a result. The gatherings aren’t getting much attention from the mainstream press, but thousands (and growing) are participating.
I can’t do anything until I work out an income though. Totally stuck here.
it sounds like a rolling project that will run david.. stick with it.
empathy for the money troubles – really hope it turns on it’s head for you, and soon.
the most crucifying thing about garage sale for me is that it is priceless memories being given away to fund short term needs – once the money is gone the situation can only be worse.. no money.. no context for your life.. and an even more steep curve, saddled with regret perhaps, to get back on the up.
it’s a tragic illustration of what’s happening..
I imagine many would be interested in this site:
http://www.nameyourdreamassignment.com/the-ideas/humanfiles/
David McGowan
Thank you! What a way of showing reality… so simple and so cruel…
thank you! you gave my morning a meaning!
Mó.
Mó. Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad it made your morning!
thanks Burn for sharing David McGowan’s work. We’ve shared it with our Facebook community (gladiatorgw) and they’ve really enjoyed it, too.
GGW
The beginning of Part II:
http://www.humanfiles.com/teaparties/teaparty_01.htm
Gorgeous and impassioned. Simple and brilliant. Well done.