paula zuccotti archives a catalog of everything we touch in a single day

paula zuccotti archives a catalog of everything we touch in a single day
(above) mol, 37, buenos aires

forming an archival catalog of a person’s physical and sentimental journey over the course of a single day, paula zuccotti travelled across the globe and asked people to gather every object they touched in 24 hours. participants from a vast array of ages, cultures, professions and backgrounds — from a toddler in tokyo to a cowboy in arizona — took part in documenting their personal possessions, arranging their objects together in a single frame. the resulting photographs that comprise the series ‘everything we touch‘ and accompanying book seek to answer the question: can we make sense of someone’s life by only viewing the objects they interact with throughout the day?

anna, 2, tokyo

‘I felt the urge to document our current interaction with these objects,’ zuccotti says. ‘many of the things we know about from past civilizations are from insights gathered through their objects. their tools, utensils, clothes, manuscripts and art have taught us about the work they did, what they hunted, grew and ate and how they dressed or expressed themselves. will ours do the same?’

wang, 50, shanghai

steve, 54, los angeles

santo, 5, london

sonia, 32, london

piedad, 42, madrid

ana belen, 33, london

mike, 42, london

kitty, 25, melbourne

kazari, 21, tokyo

julia, 39, london

carlos, 48, pheonix

arlo, 1 month, london

making-0f the shanghai spread

zuccotti organizes objects on the canvass