lost dolls 003

some time ago i was downtown at one of my favorite local thrifts, walking without hurry through each aisle filled with so much unwanted tchotchke looking for some hidden treasure when i spotted this little kewpie. she was just sitting there on the shelf between some paperback books and salt and pepper shakers. i grabbed her and brought her home for my bride.
she looked at it with askance and then asked "what am i supposed to do with that?" dismayed, i answered "it's a kewpie. you set it on a shelf and look at it." "huh. i don't want any more junk in the house." "junk! junk? it's a kewpie. you know, like from old timey, like you're my girl and i took you out to the fair or carnival. we walked along the midway until we came to this little booth. i picked up a baseball, 3 for a dollar and knocked the milk bottles over and this is what they gave me. and i gave it to you."


"yeah, but you didn't do any of that." "that's not the point. it's what it represents. it's a kewpie." well the little doll sat on her dresser for a day or two and then it mysteriously disappeared. so mysteriously i hadn't noticed it. and then, just the other day while in the garage i was moving some stuff and there in a metal tray with a lot of my other crappola was this poor little lost doll. i thought i had saved her from the fate of the local thrift, and instead she has been consigned to the dark realms of storage. don't that beat all?

lost dolls 002

my wife's friend came over one day with her kids and they brought some of their toys with them. in the pile i spotted some dolls and decided to do a quick photo shoot with them. i asked her about this one and she didn't really seem to know a lot about it. it had always been in her house growing up. it may have even belonged to her mom she said.
it's hard to tell from the pictures, but her skin is like a composite rubber instead of the hard plastic a lot of other dolls are made from. in fact looking at the face of this little girl, she looks like she could have come from the 30's. a little depression era girl. her rubber skin gives a really interesting look as it ages. like the hard times of memory and scars over the years but contrasted with a hopeful sweet and angelic baby face. i call her bess.

lost dolls 001

i saw this orphaned doll a couple years ago in a parking lot and stopped to pick her up. it's tough to know sometimes when you find one in this condition what the story is. was this abuse and neglect or are these marks of love and ownership, and somewhere some girl or boy cries at the loss? "mom, we have to go back!" tough to say. like all relationships, it's probably complicated.
anyway i guess i'm not alone in the wondering. not long after picking up the little doll i came across a great book by randall whitehead called lost dolls. it's full of some great imagery he's found poking through garbage dumps and flea markets. some of it pretty disturbing. there's something inside that causes us to act out on these little representations. i know i'm guilty. i've sent a few g.i. joe's on suicide missions and used to pluck the heads off barbies to stick in my bicycle spokes.
definitely check out the rest of randall's photography here as well. he's a nice guy and one of my favorite shutterbugs.