Marc Newton

Keen to document car boot sales before they died out, Marc Newton soon found that there’s plenty of life left in this British pastime, he tells Niall Hampton

- Niall Hampton

How did you come up with the idea for The British Boot Sale?

Initially, I started it because I thought that car boot sales were going to fade away, because of things like Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. I thought that these sales would be a great documentary project, and that’s where the initial idea came from. I started going to car boot sales in 2014, but I can’t remember how many different ones I went to. It was mainly in Essex – in Chelmsford and Dunton, for example – but also wherever I was at a given time. Some sales were in Dorset, and there was one in Scotland.

The car boot sale is a British institution, but which particular aspects make it so interesting to you?

It is uniquely British, and it’s something that I always wanted to document. It’s just part of me. I have always liked documenting the British working class, and you don’t get much more working class than this.

At an exhibition of the prints in London that took place just before the lockdown, someone said that if you showed this to a German person, they wouldn’t have a clue what it’s about – they’d be fascinated. In no other country will people pull up in a field, open their boot and sell their old tat. I thought there must be variations of it, but there don’t seem to be any – it’s a uniquely British thing.

The exhibition press release described car boot sales as “recycling at its best”. Do you agree?