Box - Pass It On

Peng Yangjun & Chen Jiaojiao
Box - Pass It On

Photographs: Peng Yangjun & Chen Jiaojiao

Text: Chen Jiaojiao, Jia Zhangke and others

Publisher: Shang Xia

332 pages

Year: 2010

Comments: Box, 260 x 194 mm. Containing a book, two booklets (one with texts in english, the other with texts in french, 52 pages each) and several objets : one aluminum toy plane, one red scarf for Chinese young pioneer’s league, one classic tin ring, four crystal beads, one vintage train ticket, one vintage cinema ticket. First edition, 2010. Text in chinese. Included in The Photobook by Parr & Badger, vol. III. As new. Collectible.

In several years of working at used book shops, I amassed an intriguing collection of things that fell from the pages of discarded books - photographs, ticket stubs, letters, newspaper clippings, receipts, pressed flowers, among other oddities. Tucked away for safe keeping, these items are forgotten treasures, the discovery of which was always a special moment, an intimate view of the previous owner. My initial impulse was to discuss Box - Pass It On in the context of vernacular photography, for which I have a deep love, but this book hit on a different level. Filled with treasures like the kind I'd find in old books, Box - Pass It On is something very special, something different from the reproduced photo albums and collections of found photographs I've previously encountered.