The Sofas Of Los Angeles
March 25, 2017 5:53 PM Subscribe
L.A. photographer finds beauty in abandoned couches: Twenty years ago, [Andrew] Ward left Dublin and, after a stint in Vancouver, came to Los Angeles, where he still works as a Hollywood first assistant director. ~ He was driving home one day when he noticed something he rarely saw in Ireland. Couches ... just left there out on the curb. ~ "And I just for some reason just began photographing them," he says. ~ And now, he says, he can't stop.
This is relevant to my interests
posted by Going To Maine at 5:59 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Going To Maine at 5:59 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Where do all the cushions go?
posted by aniola at 6:11 PM on March 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by aniola at 6:11 PM on March 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
You haven't seen anything until you check out the sofas in the green foothills of Bakersfield. Now there is something truly lonesome and abandoned about these pieces.
posted by Oyéah at 6:14 PM on March 25, 2017
posted by Oyéah at 6:14 PM on March 25, 2017
That couch was pretty worn out, and the dog had had a lot of problems on it.
I'm always grateful for people who find the beauty in the many, many abandoned objects of our society, but the only thing I know for certain when I look at a thrown-out couch is that here is an object that has been farted on.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:22 PM on March 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
I'm always grateful for people who find the beauty in the many, many abandoned objects of our society, but the only thing I know for certain when I look at a thrown-out couch is that here is an object that has been farted on.
posted by Countess Elena at 6:22 PM on March 25, 2017 [5 favorites]
These are great. I assume that he moved some of them into place before he shot them, unlikely that they'd all be lined up so nicely with the curb.
posted by octothorpe at 6:24 PM on March 25, 2017
posted by octothorpe at 6:24 PM on March 25, 2017
Oh, actually reading the article tells me that he does move them around.
posted by octothorpe at 6:27 PM on March 25, 2017
posted by octothorpe at 6:27 PM on March 25, 2017
Reminds me a bit of Drunk Furniture.
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:42 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by TheWhiteSkull at 6:42 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
...aaaaaaaAAAAAA...FREE COUCH
posted by rocket at 6:43 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by rocket at 6:43 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Where do all the cushions go?
Long time passing...
posted by hippybear at 6:49 PM on March 25, 2017 [21 favorites]
Long time passing...
posted by hippybear at 6:49 PM on March 25, 2017 [21 favorites]
Sofa king good.
posted by davebush at 6:51 PM on March 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by davebush at 6:51 PM on March 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
So, what do people do with their old couches in Ireland?
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:00 PM on March 25, 2017
posted by The Underpants Monster at 7:00 PM on March 25, 2017
I have kind of the same thing going with bikes. I've wondered why bikes get chained up with perfectly decent and sometime kind of expensive locks, only to be abandoned and left to decay. I've got about 500 bikes around the world photographed - they're everywhere. Its been interesting to watch a couple go from brand new to virtually nothing over the course of a few years.
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:19 PM on March 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
posted by blaneyphoto at 7:19 PM on March 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
The Sofas Of Los Angeles
Is this the sequel to The Bridges of Madison County?
I thought of using The Guns of Navarone, but that would have just been silly.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:21 PM on March 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
Is this the sequel to The Bridges of Madison County?
I thought of using The Guns of Navarone, but that would have just been silly.
posted by Greg_Ace at 7:21 PM on March 25, 2017 [4 favorites]
This reminds me of mattresses of Walthamstow.
posted by Dysk at 7:23 PM on March 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Dysk at 7:23 PM on March 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
Reminds me of the Red Couch Project from the 1980s
posted by fungible at 8:28 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by fungible at 8:28 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
the only thing I know for certain when I look at a thrown-out couch is that here is an object that has been farted on.
I think of all the porn I've seen that takes place on couches, and the thought that keeps coming up is, "I doubt that all of that upholstery was Scotchgarded."
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:42 PM on March 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
I think of all the porn I've seen that takes place on couches, and the thought that keeps coming up is, "I doubt that all of that upholstery was Scotchgarded."
posted by Halloween Jack at 8:42 PM on March 25, 2017 [2 favorites]
the only thing I know for certain when I look at a thrown-out couch is that here is an object that has been farted on.
This is relevant to my interests.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:29 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is relevant to my interests.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:29 PM on March 25, 2017 [1 favorite]
Where do all the cushions go?
Someone told me once that roofers take them, because the cushions work well for sitting on/kneeling on while laying shingles, stuff like that. Dunno if it's true, but it seemed plausible.
posted by pleasant_confusion at 10:49 PM on March 25, 2017
Someone told me once that roofers take them, because the cushions work well for sitting on/kneeling on while laying shingles, stuff like that. Dunno if it's true, but it seemed plausible.
posted by pleasant_confusion at 10:49 PM on March 25, 2017
Where do all the cushions go?
The roofer thing is sensible in a romantic way, but my money's on the truth being a lot more drab. Like, the cushions are small enough to fit in the dumpster out back, and too difficult to keep on the couch while you're carrying it to the curb, so.
posted by carsonb at 11:33 PM on March 25, 2017
The roofer thing is sensible in a romantic way, but my money's on the truth being a lot more drab. Like, the cushions are small enough to fit in the dumpster out back, and too difficult to keep on the couch while you're carrying it to the curb, so.
posted by carsonb at 11:33 PM on March 25, 2017
> So, what do people do with their old couches in Ireland?
Couches have been banned in Ireland for over 45 years, considered to be immoral influences towards the temptation to watch British broadcasting. So at this point the only ones remaining are being preserved for antiquarian interest and the occasional settee smuggled in from Spain.
posted by ardgedee at 11:43 PM on March 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
Couches have been banned in Ireland for over 45 years, considered to be immoral influences towards the temptation to watch British broadcasting. So at this point the only ones remaining are being preserved for antiquarian interest and the occasional settee smuggled in from Spain.
posted by ardgedee at 11:43 PM on March 25, 2017 [11 favorites]
It rains in Ireland so leaving them out for any length of time is not an option in freecycling terms. What you do see is many, many free couch postings on local buy&sell Facebook groups and the like.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:58 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:58 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
I've wondered why bikes get chained up with perfectly decent and sometime kind of expensive locks, only to be abandoned and left to decay.
People go somewhere on a bike, and then they die. Or get arrested. Or meet "the one" and board a train for parts unknown. They get really drunk, take a cab home, and just can't be bothered to get back into town... they'll do it someday, real soon. After a lengthy drug binge they find themselves in another city, another life.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:38 AM on March 26, 2017 [8 favorites]
People go somewhere on a bike, and then they die. Or get arrested. Or meet "the one" and board a train for parts unknown. They get really drunk, take a cab home, and just can't be bothered to get back into town... they'll do it someday, real soon. After a lengthy drug binge they find themselves in another city, another life.
posted by Meatbomb at 2:38 AM on March 26, 2017 [8 favorites]
It costs at least $100 to tip a couch, and you also have to get the couch to the landfill, which means renting a truck. So about $200.
That's not universal, though. I've lived in a place where trash pickup was privatized*, and with our service contract our company gave us one free "bulk" pickup a year or something for big stuff like sofas. Even if you paid for one it wasn't that expensive.
* If you live someplace where trash pickup is a government function and are unfamiliar with this concept, it basically means that everybody contracts with a garbage company for service. There are multiple companies serving a given area, so on trash day in my area we had 3 or 4 trash trucks cruising down our street at 6am.
posted by LionIndex at 6:09 AM on March 26, 2017
That's not universal, though. I've lived in a place where trash pickup was privatized*, and with our service contract our company gave us one free "bulk" pickup a year or something for big stuff like sofas. Even if you paid for one it wasn't that expensive.
* If you live someplace where trash pickup is a government function and are unfamiliar with this concept, it basically means that everybody contracts with a garbage company for service. There are multiple companies serving a given area, so on trash day in my area we had 3 or 4 trash trucks cruising down our street at 6am.
posted by LionIndex at 6:09 AM on March 26, 2017
In Pittsburgh you can leave two bulky items out a week and the city garbage people will take them away for free. If you're doing renovation or moving you just ask your neighbors to put stuff out for them behind their house so as not to go over the limit. So no couches on the street*.
*also we have alleyways behind the houses so we put all our garbage out there and don't have to pile it up on the street
posted by octothorpe at 6:41 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
*also we have alleyways behind the houses so we put all our garbage out there and don't have to pile it up on the street
posted by octothorpe at 6:41 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
This is pretty common in the city (a university town) where I live. It costs at least $100 to tip a couch, and you also have to get the couch to the landfill, which means renting a truck. So about $200
Well, here in Los Angeles you just fire up the My311 app and the city takes it away for free. In fact, that's exactly what I do when one of my neighbors throws a bunch of stuff on the curb for the trash fairies or whatever.
Everyone of these pictures is the result of someone's extreme laziness.
posted by sideshow at 6:55 AM on March 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
Well, here in Los Angeles you just fire up the My311 app and the city takes it away for free. In fact, that's exactly what I do when one of my neighbors throws a bunch of stuff on the curb for the trash fairies or whatever.
Everyone of these pictures is the result of someone's extreme laziness.
posted by sideshow at 6:55 AM on March 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
And earlier James Dean, 1999-2000.
And Kevin Plocek, who has a different opinion about calling 311.
Peggy Archer is my favorite.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:24 AM on March 26, 2017
And Kevin Plocek, who has a different opinion about calling 311.
Peggy Archer is my favorite.
posted by Ideefixe at 7:24 AM on March 26, 2017
And Kevin Plocek, who has a different opinion about calling 311.
A dude who writes for Vice thinks that neighborhood trash is actually cool and we shouldn't fuck up LA's vibe by cleaning it up? Yeah, he is nothing if not on brand.
posted by sideshow at 7:35 AM on March 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
A dude who writes for Vice thinks that neighborhood trash is actually cool and we shouldn't fuck up LA's vibe by cleaning it up? Yeah, he is nothing if not on brand.
posted by sideshow at 7:35 AM on March 26, 2017 [2 favorites]
So many bedbug housing structures.
posted by xingcat at 7:47 AM on March 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
posted by xingcat at 7:47 AM on March 26, 2017 [3 favorites]
yeah, seriously. I would be all over sidewalk furniture (having lived near Harvard) if I weren't scared of bedbugs. As it is I've taken in a lamp or two, but even then without shades, and with misgivings.
posted by Countess Elena at 8:41 AM on March 26, 2017
posted by Countess Elena at 8:41 AM on March 26, 2017
Yeah, bedbugs. After a recent fight with the monsters, I learned that Los Angeles County has had a fairly recent spike in infestations. I asked the local health dept. guy who specializes in the pests how they were being spread. His reply: abandoned furniture. So some people may see beauty in these pics but I see bedbug distribution centers. Call the city and have them picked up, people!
posted by charlesminus at 10:18 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by charlesminus at 10:18 AM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
The city should do a PSA campaign about calling 31 and bulky trash pick up. I bet there are more uninformed people than lazy people who do this.
posted by Room 641-A at 10:35 AM on March 26, 2017
posted by Room 641-A at 10:35 AM on March 26, 2017
I would be all over sidewalk furniture (having lived near Harvard) if I weren't scared of bedbugs.
Yeah, soft furniture's out, but as a fellow university town dweller I've made some nice scores over the years.
Once, I got a nearly full dining/living room set (Ikea, but top-of-the-line Ikea) from beside the dumpster at my apartment building. Dining table, chairs, two end tables, coffee table, and a long dresser/sideboard, all in a lovely honey maple. It's solid as heck and has lasted for years (apart from the drawer bottoms).
I suppose it probably originally came with a couch, but I wouldn't have taken it if it had been there because of the possibility of bedbugs, fleas, and mildew.
I was raised on my mother's horror stories of bed bugs in the run-down old farmhouse of her childhood: the bloodstains on the corners of the sheets and mattresses, the constant kerosene and turpentine smell from DIY treatments, and the welts on her arms and legs from the bites of stray bugs who took longer to die. She couldn't even bring herself to follow "Good night, sleep tight" with the usual rhyme.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:40 AM on March 26, 2017
Yeah, soft furniture's out, but as a fellow university town dweller I've made some nice scores over the years.
Once, I got a nearly full dining/living room set (Ikea, but top-of-the-line Ikea) from beside the dumpster at my apartment building. Dining table, chairs, two end tables, coffee table, and a long dresser/sideboard, all in a lovely honey maple. It's solid as heck and has lasted for years (apart from the drawer bottoms).
I suppose it probably originally came with a couch, but I wouldn't have taken it if it had been there because of the possibility of bedbugs, fleas, and mildew.
I was raised on my mother's horror stories of bed bugs in the run-down old farmhouse of her childhood: the bloodstains on the corners of the sheets and mattresses, the constant kerosene and turpentine smell from DIY treatments, and the welts on her arms and legs from the bites of stray bugs who took longer to die. She couldn't even bring herself to follow "Good night, sleep tight" with the usual rhyme.
posted by The Underpants Monster at 10:40 AM on March 26, 2017
One of my favorite song lyrics goes "I'm going to hold you tight, through the night / The bedbugs better hope that I don't bite..." in a song that's all about someone trying to drive away the cares of the day from their partner's mind. ("In Just a Moment's Time," from the soundtrack of the game Skullgirls.)
Also, found object photography is always fascinating. Is there another, more formal name for that art form?
That's all, carry on.
posted by seyirci at 12:55 PM on March 26, 2017
Also, found object photography is always fascinating. Is there another, more formal name for that art form?
That's all, carry on.
posted by seyirci at 12:55 PM on March 26, 2017
I guess I've been phenomenally lucky. For over 20 years of my adult life, in the southeastern US, I furnished my various abodes with curbside or cheap Goodwill sofas and upholstered chairs (as well as tables, lamps, etc.). Mismatched, of course; I didn't care. Granted I passed over a few that clearly looked or smelled stained/mildewed/doggy/other, but I found a lot of serviceable stuff over the years and never once had any flea or bedbug infestations as a result.
Eventually I decided to grow up (or at least, the IKEA-level version of grown-up) and get all new matching furniture. My eye still tends to get caught by stuff along the side of the road with a "FREE" sign on it, though...
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:15 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Eventually I decided to grow up (or at least, the IKEA-level version of grown-up) and get all new matching furniture. My eye still tends to get caught by stuff along the side of the road with a "FREE" sign on it, though...
posted by Greg_Ace at 1:15 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
Where do all the cushions go?
Dog owners.
I have kind of the same thing going with bikes.
I don't understand this either. It's like some people get a wheel or a seat stolen and decide "well, that's that" and abandon it. Or maybe they lose their bike lock key and can't be bothered to attempt to save it?
I always wonder about the ethics of just saving the clearly abandoned bike from further decay. Otherwise they slowly get picked cleaned by parts scavengers and are useful to no one by the time the city gets around to cutting the lock.
posted by bradbane at 1:36 PM on March 26, 2017
Dog owners.
I have kind of the same thing going with bikes.
I don't understand this either. It's like some people get a wheel or a seat stolen and decide "well, that's that" and abandon it. Or maybe they lose their bike lock key and can't be bothered to attempt to save it?
I always wonder about the ethics of just saving the clearly abandoned bike from further decay. Otherwise they slowly get picked cleaned by parts scavengers and are useful to no one by the time the city gets around to cutting the lock.
posted by bradbane at 1:36 PM on March 26, 2017
I have kind of the same thing going with bikes. I've wondered why bikes get chained up with perfectly decent and sometime kind of expensive locks, only to be abandoned and left to decay.
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:19 PM on March 25
Here in Austin it's spoiled kids at UT. As a bicycle lover I find it really appalling, a gorgeous high-end bike with a great lock and it's locked to a rack. And the months begin to go by and the bike is never even moved and the tires begin to go soft and bits of rust begin to show and you know it's not going to end well. I am assuming that they aren't stolen due to cameras and/or cops on campus; I know for a fact that's what kept me from one that was just an amazing bike, brand new (brand new when it was locked, that is.) Probably many are stolen, not the walmart bikes but the good ones; I hope so, at least they'd be getting used. I think that once a year bikes get cut off the racks and sold at auction, not sure if that's true or not
posted by dancestoblue at 2:54 PM on March 26, 2017
posted by blaneyphoto at 9:19 PM on March 25
Here in Austin it's spoiled kids at UT. As a bicycle lover I find it really appalling, a gorgeous high-end bike with a great lock and it's locked to a rack. And the months begin to go by and the bike is never even moved and the tires begin to go soft and bits of rust begin to show and you know it's not going to end well. I am assuming that they aren't stolen due to cameras and/or cops on campus; I know for a fact that's what kept me from one that was just an amazing bike, brand new (brand new when it was locked, that is.) Probably many are stolen, not the walmart bikes but the good ones; I hope so, at least they'd be getting used. I think that once a year bikes get cut off the racks and sold at auction, not sure if that's true or not
posted by dancestoblue at 2:54 PM on March 26, 2017
Twenty-five years ago Phil Tiger put out his "Couches of San Jose" calendar. The world has been piggybacking on his work ever since.
posted by le_vert_galant at 5:55 PM on March 26, 2017
posted by le_vert_galant at 5:55 PM on March 26, 2017
sofabacking?
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:19 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Greg_Ace at 8:19 PM on March 26, 2017 [1 favorite]
He needs to come to the alley behind my house. I swear, for a somewhat low density residential area, we are throwing away a hell of a lot of couches.
posted by Sophie1 at 6:48 AM on March 27, 2017
posted by Sophie1 at 6:48 AM on March 27, 2017
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posted by My Dad at 5:55 PM on March 25, 2017