21 Portraits Of Collectors And Their Unique Collections By Photographer James Mollison

Bored Panda reached out to James Mollison to find out more about his series featuring unique collections together with their owners. We wanted to know what initially drew him to the concept of photographing collectors and their collections. Mollison shared with us: “I was commissioned by David McKendrick & Lee Belcher from B.A.M. London when they relaunched Christie’s Magazine. They had seen my ‘Where Children Sleep’ project and wondered about taking inspiration from the format I had used to photograph collectors for the magazine.”

We asked James to tell us about his process for selecting and approaching the collectors featured in the project. The photographer told us: “Christie’s wanted to feature certain collectors, some who had interesting collections, others less so. But I was also able to suggest collectors I had read about or thought would be visually engaging. Examples would be Roberto Baggio and his incredible collection of hunting decoys, Rino Ferro, a former butcher who had a collection of harpoons, or my friend Cristiano Spiller, a DJ who had a collection of Lego figurines. Or when they wanted to do a series related to fashion I was able to add the New York style legend- Iris Apfel, and her amazing costume collections.”

The photographer added: “Some of the contemporary art collectors that Christie’s suggested were very difficult to photograph in this format because of the size of the artworks, and their value (a lot of moving around was needed for these pictures).”

Next, we were wondering if Mollison noticed any recurring themes or patterns in the collectors' personalities or approaches to collecting. We found out that: “There is definitely an obsessive nature to collecting, I was most drawn to collectors who did it for a love of an object or thing, rather than some of the collectors of art for whom it was maybe more for status or investment. In Germany, I photographed Jens Veerbeck, who collected vintage toasters. He had started buying one at a flea market when he was at college. Then another toaster a few months later… when I photographed him he had hundreds, and there was a real beauty seeing them all together.”

Lastly, the photographer added the final thought about “Collectors & Collections”: “A project born out of ‘Where Children Sleep’… Not serious but I hope a fun portrait of the weird world of collecting.” We encourage you to visit James’ website and learn more about this interesting series, as well as other projects the photographer worked on in the past.