You know that terrible feeling you get when spring comes and everyone is all happy but you’re kinda bummed out because you can’t wear your big ugly boots anymore? That’s like kinda sorta the opposite feeling people who garage sale get. The garage sale people (and me, I’m one of them) get really pumped up. They go get their cup of quarters, their fanny packs, their walking shoes, visors, and maybe even their water bottle ready. They have all this stuff ready, and they get out there, and they buy stuff. They buy stuff they might never have ever thought about needing, and they pay 10 cents for it. The photo set you’re about to lay your eyeballs on is called “!GARAGE SALE!”, taken by Caroline Palla.

Photographer Caroline Palla had a hankering. A hankering for a journey of weird proportions. So where did she go? To AMERICA. Yes! Perhaps you’ve heard of the epic 127 Corridor Sale, the one that runs through the states of Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee and Alabama? Yes, she went there.

*I realize that “To AMERICA” doesn’t make much sense to the majority of WFDJ readers, so I think mentioning that artist Caroline Palla comes straight outta Zurich, Switzerland.

Read this mission statement, it’s excellent!

Garage sales are part of a do-it-yourself-culture, where people help themselves and create a parallel economy. My work traces this otherwise unmapped trade and reflects on the ever-changing value of objects under given circumstances. I create a document of every item before letting it re-enter the commodity circuit through my own garage sales/exhibitions, using a scanner or a camera. As the project progresses, other materials such as sales receipts, invitation cards, polaroids, texts and more documents are added to create a snowball effect. Each garage sale generates new material for an ever-growing image database.

The photos you’re delighting yourself in looking at here are only a small portion of the 120 photos in the !GARAGE SALE! extended set. Will we ever see all of them all? Please miss Carolina Palla please, oh yes, that would be amazing. Some gallery! I am looking in your direction.

This post is part of the World Famous Design Junkies rummage sale category.