Jason Bitner – (Found Magazine)
How much do our things tell about us? Found Magazine allows us to answer that question by giving us little glimpses into the lives and stories of others through the things they/we leave behind. Created by Davy Rothbart and Jason Bitner in 2001, Found interests the voyeur, the nosy neighbor, and the story lover in all of us through the thousands of finds collected and sent in by people from all over the world.
words: mg! / photo: zachklein
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Location?
New York / Chicago
For those who aren’t familiar with you or your publication, tell us a little bit about the history of Found and it’s sister magazine Dirty Found?
Personally, I started reading other people’s stuff when I was sixteen. I was living this really sheltered life in a suburb of Chicago when I was hired at the local recycling center to help folks unload their bottles and cans and newspapers from their cars every Saturday morning. One of our tasks was separating the glossy ads from the rest of the newspaper. It started out as a really tedious job, until we started reading all these other notes and handwritten scraps included in the piles. We’d grab anything that looked interesting and set it aside for our breaks. There’d always be one note that stood above the rest for that week and there was a sense of pride that we’d saved it from the heaps.
The notes totally shook me– I thought I lived in a peaceful oasis until these papers made secret lives available to me and my co-workers. It wasn’t until I met Davy playing basketball that I realized how many people shared a fascination with these leftovers.
The first issue of FOUND came out in June of 2001. We cobbled together seven hundred copies at a local Kinko’s and passed them around to friends and sold them in indie bookshops, and then the word started getting out and we had to print up a bunch more.
So, for the first couple of years, we kept getting these dirty pictures and we didn’t have a great place to show’em. Photos don’t look so good in the magazine, and we keep the pervy ones off the website. But some of these images are so great we had to share’em, so I started the Found Dirty Picture Club and sent these things out every week to our friends. Soon after, me and Arthur Jones put together the first issue of DIRTY FOUND; now we’ve got two DIRTY FOUNDs out there, and hopefully many more in the future.
Are finds necessarily garbage? Would you say that Found is a magazine about interesting garbage or is it something all together different?
Although a lot of the finds end up looking like they’ve been in a garbage can, tons of the finds are more forgotten or lost rather than trashed. Whether it was garbage or just lost, we’ll love it as long as it’s interesting.
What are some of your favorites that you’ve found personally or that have been passed on to you?
I found my personal favorite find a couple years ago I was heading to my neighborhood bar when I came across a crumpled note stuffed into a chain link fence. I mean, it was really wadded up tightly. So I grabbed it and unfolded it: “I love you. yes. yes. yes.” That’s all it said. It’s the perfect love note.
Is there any noticeable difference between the finds that you’ve received from different regions of the country like the Midwest or maybe the South? Or are we all pretty much the same once you get a glimpse into the things in our lives?
They’re all different. We can get two finds from the same household and they would be different. What’s strange is that someone will find a photo in San Francisco, but the photo was developed from a small drug store in Maine. Finds have a way of transcending their geographical locales.
What you guys do must be really fun seeing that you have no idea what someone could send you. How much fun is it to do what you guys do? I’d bet that just opening the mail has got to be the most interesting part of your day.
Davy and I are constantly shocked by how many people help out with the project. We get thousands and thousands of finds; it makes us happy that so many people keep their eyes peeled throughout their day. Plus, it’s a great way to learn about your own community and catch a glimpse into other people’s lives. It’s turned into quite a collaborative art project, and there is no way it could happen without those people who send finds to us.
You also have a book out called “Laporte, Indiana.” Could you tell us a bit more about it?
A couple years ago I came across an enormous photo archive sitting in the back room of a diner in LaPorte, Indiana. They’re these fantastic portraits taken back in the 1950s and 60s, totally documenting this smallish Midwestern town.
I decided I had to spend a couple weeks pouring over each of the 18,000 images, and I eventually came up with a couple hundred of my favorites, which we made into a book that came out earlier this spring on Princeton Architectural Press.
Many of the townspeople have since passed away, and the kids in photos have grown into adults. And now we’re starting to learn about a bunch of the people from the photos and gathering their stories.
The experience of going through the photos was awesome; I wish I could send plane tickets to all my favorite people to let them go through the boxes themselves. It’s like a time machine project.
The press has been really nice to you guys over the years. What are some of the publications that Found has been featured in?
FOUND and DIRTY FOUND have made their way to the pages of The New Yorker, Late Night with David Letterman, The New York Times, CNN, NPR’s This American Life, Playboy, and Punk Planet.
If someone has found something really great how do they get it to you guys?
Here are the two best ways to get stuff to us:
If you have access to a scanner, you can scan your find and email the scan to [email protected].
Mail them to us! Our address is FOUND Magazine, 3455 Charing Cross Rd., Ann Arbor, MI 48108-1911
Last but not least, do you have any words of advice for future magazine types or just young midwesterners in general?
I never loved Chicago until I moved away. First to the west coast and later to the east coast. Only now do I love the Midwest– you’ve really got to move elsewhere to know where you’re from.
Thanks!
Find out more about Jason, Found, and Dirty Found:
http://www.foundmagazine.com/
http://www.dirtyfound.com/
http://www.laportebook.com/