Ponderosa photobook

A document of the traces of crime in my local park.

This is a photobook published by Dan Sumption in April 2007, in a signed and hand-numbered strictly limited edition of 20 books. For more details see here.

Most of the photos are drawn from this photoset on Flickr. All photos (except for the one on page 9) were taken with point-and-shoot compact cameras, and feature items "in situ" exactly as they were found.

The main text of the book reads as follows:

PAGE 2

It all started when my friend Hugh was mugged on Commonside, while talking on his mobile phone...

PAGE 4

Several months later, I found a mobile phone lying on the pavement close to my house.

I could tell it belonged to a student (there was a message on the screen from one of the candidates taking part in the Sheffield University Student Union Elections, reminding the owner to vote). I assumed it had dropped out of his pocket during a night of drunken over-indulgence.

So I searched the contacts for “mum”, and phoned her, only to be told that she was sitting in hospital next to the phone's owner. When his girlfriend came to collect it the next day, I asked whether he was OK. In obvious distress she said “No, he’s not. He has blood on his brain. He was punched just down the road from here, fell down and hit his head on a metal grate”.

I was deeply affected by this fleeting contact with somebody else's life. I never found out what happened to him after that.

PAGE 6

When subsequently I found an open rucksack and a lunchbox, under a tree in the Ponderosa, I was certain that it was the discarded side-effects of another mugging.

I took it to the police station, hoping it might provide some evidence. The desk clerks seemed to think the fact that I'd bothered to hand it in was faintly ridiculous.

PAGE 8

Soon after that, in exactly the same spot, I was savaged by a police dog which was being used to sniff out a stolen purse.

PAGE 10

This accumulation of incidents showed me a different side to this pleasant student neighbourhood. The peace and seclusion of the Ponderosa, the tranquil moments I enjoy there when walking the dog, are also ideal for muggers who go there at night to divvy up their loot after jumping on drunken students or rifling through their houses.

Dealing with the police had left me feeling powerless and ineffective, so instead I started to photograph the detritus, evidence, discarded and unwanted traces of night-time crime.

13 photos | 393 views

items are from between 27 Apr 2007 & 24 May 2007.