Moving the Inside Out With Forgotten Furniture

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© Angela Clemens, courtesy of Trademark Publishing

Fascinated by New Zealanders’ curious tendency to leave furniture outside for public use, photographer Angela Clemens began a charming photo series of the sofas she encountered on her travels

For wanderlust-inflicted world travellers and homebodies alike, regional habits are endlessly fascinating, whether they relate to eating, drinking, sleeping or otherwise. While travelling in New Zealand, for example, Munich-born photographer Angela Clemens developed an avid curiosity for the sofas and armchairs she found herself endlessly coming across in public spaces: on driveways and porches, in front gardens and on street corners. Naturally, she started photographing them.

“At first I worked mainly with couches on verandas and in backyards, wanting to portray the rustic charm that the furniture acquires when it begins to break down. But then I stumbled across furniture in completely unexpected places – beaches, stadiums and rooftops!” in these unexpected environments, the furniture she shot began to assume a strangely compelling charm. Leather cushioned-seats started resembling curious characters, paused momentarily on the way from one place to the next, or a beaten-up settee might anthropomorphise as an old man taking a nap on a porch.

The resulting photographs are the subject of the most recent edition of Trademark Publishing’s PICNIC zine – a quarterly staple-bound publication celebrating the work of a chosen image-maker. You’ll never look at an abandoned three-piece suite with the same dismissal again.

PICNIC is available now, published by Trademark Publishing.