Marc Newton
Documentary photographer
Photographer, author and speaker Marc Newton launched The School of Photography in 2012. It offers online photography courses and books to a global audience, and is a leading provider of photography education to schools and colleges in the United Kingdom.
Marc’s roots are in documentary photography, which he continues to produce alongside running The School of Photography. He is particularly interested in creating documentary projects to be looked back on in decades to come, as a reflection of everyday life in former times.
One such project is The British Boot Sale, holding a mirror to the peculiarly British pastime of selling unwanted possessions from your car in a field on Sunday mornings.
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?
