What do you think?
Rate this book
Everything We Touch: A 24-Hour Inventory of Our Lives
*Features exposed spine showing stitching and enabling book to open completely flat!*
What's the first thing we touch when we wake up? How do our favourite things reveal our hopes and fears? Can objects tell the story of our lives? Imagine how your day would look if you recorded everything that you touched. From smartphone to soap, from spice to spoon... what if they were all brought together in one place? Would they tell a bigger story?
Driven by this idea, Paula Zuccotti travelled around the world to find people from an incredible array of ages, cultures, professions and backgrounds. She asked them to document every object they touched in 24 hours. Then she gathered those objects together and photographed them in a single shot.
From a toddler in Tokyo to a cowboy in Arizona, from a cleaner in London to a cloister nun in Madrid, Every Thing We Touch is their story told through the objects they own, consume, need, choose, treasure and can't let go. Each image is mystery, a story, a work of art. Each is a moment in time: a life and a world reflected back at us.
What's the first thing we touch when we wake up? How do our favourite things reveal our hopes and fears? Can objects tell the story of our lives? Imagine how your day would look if you recorded everything that you touched. From smartphone to soap, from spice to spoon... what if they were all brought together in one place? Would they tell a bigger story?
Driven by this idea, Paula Zuccotti travelled around the world to find people from an incredible array of ages, cultures, professions and backgrounds. She asked them to document every object they touched in 24 hours. Then she gathered those objects together and photographed them in a single shot.
From a toddler in Tokyo to a cowboy in Arizona, from a cleaner in London to a cloister nun in Madrid, Every Thing We Touch is their story told through the objects they own, consume, need, choose, treasure and can't let go. Each image is mystery, a story, a work of art. Each is a moment in time: a life and a world reflected back at us.
- GenresNonfictionArt
256 pages, Paperback
First published November 10, 2015
154 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 21, 2016
To navigate modern life we use a myriad of things every single day; phones, spoons, tools, clothes and pencils are just some of the objects that we touch and use every single day. In this book Zuccotti has got people to log everything that they touched, then got them to bring them to a studio to have those things photographed. Each photo was taken on a large white floors and shows that person’s life that day. Some of the items are deeply personal, some have huge sentimental value and others are transitory.
Just a glance at the objects on the page and you can almost always tell if the individual is male or female, young or old, but it sometimes becomes harder as she has people from different cultures bring in the snapshots from their lives. The range of people makes it fascinating too, there are cleaners, cowboys, artists, dancers and even a nun. Each person has a little bio of why they used some of these things and gets to choose a favourite object. It is quite amazing just how many things you touch and use throughout each day just to get up, get to work or school and get back home. There are a number of things that are similar across all the people who participated, technology for example, but Zuccotti has managed to select a diverse range. There is not a huge amount to read though, unless you like reading vast lists, but if you can lay your hands on a copy it is worth spending some time flicking through.
Just a glance at the objects on the page and you can almost always tell if the individual is male or female, young or old, but it sometimes becomes harder as she has people from different cultures bring in the snapshots from their lives. The range of people makes it fascinating too, there are cleaners, cowboys, artists, dancers and even a nun. Each person has a little bio of why they used some of these things and gets to choose a favourite object. It is quite amazing just how many things you touch and use throughout each day just to get up, get to work or school and get back home. There are a number of things that are similar across all the people who participated, technology for example, but Zuccotti has managed to select a diverse range. There is not a huge amount to read though, unless you like reading vast lists, but if you can lay your hands on a copy it is worth spending some time flicking through.
July 23, 2016
This book claims to feature all items touched by a number of selected people in a 24-hour span, excluding fixtures and non-movable items such as lights, furniture, etc. We see a 2-page spread of all these items laid out and photographed, followed by a short 1-page description of that person, his/her job, and what he/she did during that 24-hour period.
One of the featured people, a Bulgarian chemistry graduate working in London as a cleaner, surmised that everyone would have at least some objects in common - e.g. toilet paper for one. Indeed, I thought. And yet, you will notice that no one has toilet paper in their touched items except her. Some people also did not have any underwear featured. So I presume these people were lying or they must be freaks. Along this line, some people also didn't have food items (I guess they fasted?). You get the picture. So, what's the point, really? If people weren't going to be honest about what they touched? Or missed out stuff they thought was irrelevant?
The only fun I had with this book was guessing people's occupations based on the items featured. (We see the items first, followed by a description of the person.) I was right most of the time, because... duh. What else can someone be if all you see are baby clothes, baby toys and diapers? Or a paint-stained apron, large canvases of art and miscellaneous art tools? Or a nun's habit? Or a huge slab of meat, meat hooks, cutting knives, weighing scale, etc? And so on.
The author claims that one of the aims of this project was to offer insight into the human condition. The project was to make us think about the things we depend on and how they affect our lives, etc. Or what we would have needed at different points in our lives.
Sadly, I didn't feel that at all.
The items were also pretty mundane and boring. (Except for some specialised occupations - e.g. a male geisha and a koto repairman, both from Japan. But even then, what was the point of showing what these people touched? They could have just been interviewed about their job. Because I darn well wasn't interested in seeing what toothpaste they used for instance.)
All in all, the item showcase was pretty redundant and meaningless. This becomes all the more obvious when the author features a nun whose only item she apparently touched, was her habit. When the author questioned her about all the other items she touched, she said that she could not show them to us.
The author then tries to draw a fanciful conclusion from this.
Look. I didn't really need a nun to be featured to know that: 1) she's been cut off from the world; 2) she would have many constraints on what she's allowed to do.
I suppose the author wanted to spur readers into thinking about what choosing a life like that would constitute. And, for the other people featured, what being a mother is like (having to deal with baby stuff, etc), what being a teen is like (items show a transition between child and adult taking place), what being a child is like (toys mainly), etc. But I don't think the item showcase was a good or effective way of doing this.
Lastly, I don't know if the author's intent was to show a "regular workday" for some people or what. But some people had their 24-hour item showcase happen on a weekend when they weren't working, while others had theirs on a regular workday. What the point of this was, I still do not know. Nonetheless, neither was very interesting to me.
I think the idea behind the premise is there, but choosing to execute it this way (using the 24-hour inventory showcase) just didn't cut it for me.
One of the featured people, a Bulgarian chemistry graduate working in London as a cleaner, surmised that everyone would have at least some objects in common - e.g. toilet paper for one. Indeed, I thought. And yet, you will notice that no one has toilet paper in their touched items except her. Some people also did not have any underwear featured. So I presume these people were lying or they must be freaks. Along this line, some people also didn't have food items (I guess they fasted?). You get the picture. So, what's the point, really? If people weren't going to be honest about what they touched? Or missed out stuff they thought was irrelevant?
The only fun I had with this book was guessing people's occupations based on the items featured. (We see the items first, followed by a description of the person.) I was right most of the time, because... duh. What else can someone be if all you see are baby clothes, baby toys and diapers? Or a paint-stained apron, large canvases of art and miscellaneous art tools? Or a nun's habit? Or a huge slab of meat, meat hooks, cutting knives, weighing scale, etc? And so on.
The author claims that one of the aims of this project was to offer insight into the human condition. The project was to make us think about the things we depend on and how they affect our lives, etc. Or what we would have needed at different points in our lives.
Sadly, I didn't feel that at all.
The items were also pretty mundane and boring. (Except for some specialised occupations - e.g. a male geisha and a koto repairman, both from Japan. But even then, what was the point of showing what these people touched? They could have just been interviewed about their job. Because I darn well wasn't interested in seeing what toothpaste they used for instance.)
All in all, the item showcase was pretty redundant and meaningless. This becomes all the more obvious when the author features a nun whose only item she apparently touched, was her habit. When the author questioned her about all the other items she touched, she said that she could not show them to us.
The author then tries to draw a fanciful conclusion from this.
Look. I didn't really need a nun to be featured to know that: 1) she's been cut off from the world; 2) she would have many constraints on what she's allowed to do.
I suppose the author wanted to spur readers into thinking about what choosing a life like that would constitute. And, for the other people featured, what being a mother is like (having to deal with baby stuff, etc), what being a teen is like (items show a transition between child and adult taking place), what being a child is like (toys mainly), etc. But I don't think the item showcase was a good or effective way of doing this.
Lastly, I don't know if the author's intent was to show a "regular workday" for some people or what. But some people had their 24-hour item showcase happen on a weekend when they weren't working, while others had theirs on a regular workday. What the point of this was, I still do not know. Nonetheless, neither was very interesting to me.
I think the idea behind the premise is there, but choosing to execute it this way (using the 24-hour inventory showcase) just didn't cut it for me.
June 21, 2017
Very interesting project. This is my favorite kind of photography.
It was cool to see all the objects that people touch in a day. While reading, I found myself wondering what objects would be in my photo and even considered renting a photo studio to make my own photo... But it's probably not as easy as it looks.
One downside was that I feel like some objects were missing with many of these people. Toilet rolls, sometimes food, underwear. Some images ended in a weird way, whereas most ended with the people brushing their teeth and putting on pyjamas. Makes me wonder if the instructions were clear enough: what is 'everything'?
It was cool to see all the objects that people touch in a day. While reading, I found myself wondering what objects would be in my photo and even considered renting a photo studio to make my own photo... But it's probably not as easy as it looks.
One downside was that I feel like some objects were missing with many of these people. Toilet rolls, sometimes food, underwear. Some images ended in a weird way, whereas most ended with the people brushing their teeth and putting on pyjamas. Makes me wonder if the instructions were clear enough: what is 'everything'?
February 27, 2016
An interesting read, looking at how the objects we touch tell the stories of our lives. I enjoyed it, Many of the people were quite similar to each other though (eg several artists, designers, musicians). I think that including more diversity would make this book even more thought-provoking.
July 26, 2016
An interesting read - I wonder how much people's actions on the day were influenced by the knowledge that the photos were going to be taken?
March 20, 2024
Fascinating subject and really well executed! It mainly highlighted people who were creative or practised a traditional craft, but I would have found it interesting to see more “common” people as well.
June 11, 2016
Like personas on PCP. Full review here: https://medium.com/the-ux-book-club/u...
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews