Comfort Objects

Luke's most treasured "dee." The one "with the BIG hole."

For a while now I've been musing about a book made up of beautiful photographs of comfort objects, more commonly known as "loveys."  You know what I mean -- blankies, soothers, teddy bears, glasses of wine and the like. And these photographs would be accompanied by short quotes, anecdotes, and ruminations on the subject. *

My teddy bear Jay Jay. You can't see it in this photo but his head is almost completely detached.

So today I started a flickr group devoted to them. There's nothing but three little lonely pictures of my own there -- and I don't pretend to be a remotely good photographer -- so if you have any you'd like to share, please do join us. Er, I mean me.

Here are some nice photos of comfort objects that other people have posted on flickr:

a threadbare blankie
a soother and a spare
blankie love
teddy falling
another old teddy
teddy goes for a walk
pacifier
it says "uhoh" to me 
this one may be my favourite

*Of course, the way these things tend to go, today I discovered that someone has already put together a book called Creature Comforts and it is very similar to the one I had in mind. Although I think I prefer the photos to focus more on the object than the person. And ideally, in my imaginary book, they'd be contributed by a variety of different photographers. As would the writing. But the general idea is the same. Here's a piece the author and photographer put together for Pacific Northwest Magazine.

Comments

[babelbabe]

my childhood lovey (a raggedy Ann doll) is in PIECES. She's wrapped up in a bandanna in a safe place. I will have to photograph her - she looks like a war casualty.

have you ever read Finslippy's pieces on her son's loveys? Lemme go dig up the links -

[kittenpie]

My own raggedy anne doll, as the one above, had to have her "socks" replaced when the cloth got so worn that her feet fell off...

Pumpkinpie's doggie looks pretty rough these days, but is much loved and still a nice toy, for all the loving she's suffered.

[Bob Gillespie]

Your idea of a book about comfort objects with text sounds good. Go for it!