One man’s rubbish is another man’s treasure

All it takes to turn a cast-off into a prized possession can be a bit of imagination. To a passerby, a bookcase left on the pavement might be perfect for that impossible-to-furnish alcove. An empty bottle, once the waves have worn it smooth, could become a precious jewel for a beachcomber. In an instant a bored child will fish a piece of cardboard from the bin and transform it into a rocket, raft or portal to another dimension. One man’s rubbish, as we know, is another man’s treasure.

The subject is explored in Rag and Bone by the photographer Lisa Woollett, who has a personal connection with discards. Her grandfather was a dustman and her great-grandfather a professional scavenger on the Thames foreshore. Taking us on a series of walks beside the tideline, beginning in central London and moving towards the estuary where she grew up, Woollett pulls abandoned objects from the mud and brings their stories to the surface.