Discarded Books as Photo Project…and then…Book

Do you ever feel sentimental about weeded books? Then this one’s for you. (The NYT recommends that you view it full screen).

While books may not necessarily make for a better reading experience (ed. but it’s ok to have a preference one way or the other), they are superior as subject matter for a photo project. (I defy you, dear reader, to find a loving portrait of a Nook.)

To wit, witness Kerry Mansfield’s “Expired,” a twenty-page photo series whose substance is the physicality of discarded and withdrawn library books. She brings the lens in close, showing worn edges and torn covers and photographing the ephemera of the library experience: the check-out cards and the paper pockets they went into