An interesting assignment today. Ralph "Bozo" Coutermarsh is a collector of junk. There tends to be one in about every American town, someone who cannot throw things away and uses their yard to collect everything, they all seem to say what Ralph told me today as they point to an old boat with a hole in it or a Willy's Jeep with no axles, "Its still good, see! I'll use it someday, people say this stuff is junk but they don't understand." Ralph lives alone in Strafford, VT on about an acre of land, his stuff has started to creep into part of the road, for 20 years he was not bothered about his collection but now neighbors are starting to raise a fuss. Ralph has a reputation of being unwelcoming, which is most likely why he was left alone for 20 years. As I was photographing his house today, before Ralph got home, a jogger ran by and said, "you had better hurry up so you're not noticed, he's not the friendliest guy." And the jogger was right, he wasn't the friendliest guy at first, it took about an hour of just talking before I even felt I could ask to take a picture. He said I could shoot the junk but not him so I took it slow and kept talking and eventually he didn't back out of the frame when I put the camera up. He even took me into his home and showed me some of his more interesting guns... I started to enjoy being around, it turns out he is actually a really kind man, just misunderstood, you know, like the old man in Home Alone. Most of the "junk" he wanted to show me had some connection with his family, especially his father, who died a few years ago. People develop a sense of pride in different things, its photographs and handmade things for me, for Ralph its his possessions and the abundance of them, the way they sprawl out over his yard, they remind him of his family and friends. I hope he can keep it all.
