
Some Thing means Everything to Somebody
- Publisher
- RRB Photobooks
- Year
- 2015
- ISBN
- 9780993232305
- Specifications
- Hardcover with dustjacket
23 x 28 cm
132 pages
124 colour images
First Edition: each copy includes a 5x5" print signed and initialled by Mitchell, slipped inside the front-cover flap
Edition of 950
Four different scarecrow prints, 250 of each, none of them in the book
Special Edition: hardcover with dustjacket in handmade slipcase, signed and numbered
Peter Mitchell's follow-up to the sell-out Strangely Familiar, and RRB Photobooks' very first publication, this is an autobiography told through inanimate objects silently observed by scarecrows. Some Thing means Everything to Somebody boldly marks the passing of time by weaving images of these surreal totems in the landscape amongst those of objects with sentimental value. The combination of personal belongings with scarecrows highlights the quirky and eccentric view Mitchell has shown throughout his work: the humdrum and mundane becomes weird and wonderful, the ordinary becomes extraordinary. This is a document of both the literal and the allegorical: blank scarecrow faces in empty landscapes with muted skies connect to a bleak pastoral sensibility, while hoarded things map out Mitchell's life chronologically. 'Scarecrows have always been a feature of my childhood. I've purposefully chosen ones that have no face on them because I didn't want people to laugh at them but imagine them as people. I've paired them with the objects that I've got which are my own scruffy little objects—treasured objects I've had since I was little. I chose them because I use them every day. Everyday objects with the figure of Everyman.' The book employs hand-made fonts combined with narratives purposefully jangling and rattling the reader along with this eclectic panoply of possessions.