Russell Weekes - Putting the ctional back into functional

12 Objects

At the beginning of 2012 Ali Mobasser and I started working on the project that became '12 Objects'. Having been commissioned by Kate Edwards at The Guardian newspaper to produce a photo story showing the changes in a collection of everyday objects over the last century, we began with selection. From technology to body shape we attempted to choose objects that show as many aspects of daily life as possible.

Due to the nature of the project we focussed on finding individual collectors rather than approaching museums. With producers Sam Adam and O’Neil Edwards we found some amazing collectors and travelled up and down Great Britain to photograph their objects. Shooting in offices, living rooms, bedrooms, sheds and studios, the final photographs represent our visual decisions using research and the collectors knowledge to show how these objects have changed from 1900 to the present day.

With a final selection of ebay purchases to fill in gaps and a ridiculous amount of time spent trying to find a plastic milk carton from the 2000s, the project took the best part of a year to complete. Both Ali and I feel the photographs say so much about the positive and negative effects that objects have on our everyday lives, however we aimed to be as objective and archival as possible throughout, allowing the viewer to choose what they take from it.

The finished project was printed in a 9 page feature in the Guardian Weekend on 16th March 2013.