#0008 Letterboxes

The collector: Amy Blackwell, User Experience Designer, Bournemouth (UK).

The collection: Documentary photographs of letterboxes.

Tell us the story behind your collection…

Weeeelllll... Once upon a time there was a tutor who took his students on a walk around Birmingham and asked them to pick an obsession. I picked letterboxes and now I can't help checking them out wherever I go...

Why Letter Boxes?

I think they're an under-rated bit of door furniture. Knockers, knobs and fancy numbers have nothing on a good letterbox.

What is it you like about them?

I like how many different kinds there are. I mean really, how many ways can you prettify a hole in a door? I also kind of like it when people look at me like I'm a weirdo when I photograph them. I even got stopped by the police once.  I was photographing a police station letterbox though (they probably thought I was casing the joint!)

Tell us how your collection is arranged or displayed.

My collection is currently kept on my computer, but whenever I give someone a picture frame or a photo album for a present they always get a letterbox (usually their own).

Do you have a favourite?

I tend to like older letterboxes, or ones that look really dirty and industrial.

Is there a particular letterbox that you haven't yet photographed that you'd really love to add to your collection?

I wonder if Buckingham Palace has a letterbox?

Do you have any other collections?

I'm a bit of a collector/hoarder.  I have decent collections of pin badges, earrings and a major thing for tea cups, specifically lithophane tea cups with pictures of Geishas in the bottom.

Are you obsessed?

Probably more than would be considered 'normal'.

www.amyblackwell.com

Images © Amy Blackwell and used with her kind permission.