Monthly Documentation:
July 2006
This month I hit a record high of 36 mattresses. Yet despite the excitement from this abundance, I'm already beginning to realize the end of my mattress accumulation is near; just one more month. The thing is, I had already been photographing mattresses for almost exactly a year before I joined the Accumulation Project, so this was already a habit, albeit one with no apparent reason those first twelve months. So when the end of August arrives, it will be two years that I have photographed any mattress I've come across.

I am contemplating whether I take the end of this specific project as an opportunity/excuse to end my collection officially, or whether I proclaim myself a lifer. There is a guy [Frank Lekstutis of Staten Island] who has been photographing ice machines for 25 years, and his photographs are great. A quarter century from now am I still going to be a mattress photographer?

The thing is, I've never been a collector of anything. My parents are both throw-awayers (ok, making that word up, but you know what I mean.) No one in my family has ever really collected anything. Perhaps its genetic or learned behavior, my boyfriend is an avid collector and both of his parents are as well.

I remember having a piano teacher when I was young who tried to reward her students with collectable stamps, but it never really stuck for me (yes, I suppose that's a pun.) I was given ladybug-based presents until I was ten or eleven, and sporadically into adulthood, but that was just an easy excuse for a gift; I mean I'm not the only one who likes ladybugs. In fact, who doesn't? It'd be like hating puppies and kittens. I had a set of half a dozen Esprit posters in junior high, but does that count as a collection or just belie the fact that I was able to get all of them mailed to me for free? I think the latter. I collect my own art, but that's not on purpose. In fact, I would love not to have that collection.

So now I've had a taste of why people collect even the strangest of things, like mattresses. Well, photographs of mattresses at least. If I had a warehouse and a truck maybe I'd do a "Princess and the Pea" installation with actual mattresses, but I don't, and I wouldn't include the mattress labeled "infested" either. Scary.

So, am I going to be able to say, "No more mattresses", and turn a blind eye on September 1, 2006 when I will invariably see another one lurking down the street? If I do decide to take "just one more" what will become of me?

Running total: 191 mattresses

Process: I will photograph discarded dreams in the guise of used mattresses found in the trash during my daily travels about the city.