In Lydbrook, Gloucestershire, an abandoned cream sofa sparked community creativity and joy. Amateur photographer Alex Elton-Wall began capturing locals on the sofa after it was dumped near a road and woods. His initiative turned the sofa into a local attraction, ranking second on Tripadvisor, with over 170 portraits taken, including pets. This quirky project created a sense of community, generating a dedicated Facebook page for sharing photos and mysterious additional decor items that some speculate could be from an anonymous local artist, enhancing the feel-good factor in challenging times.
Since then, Elton-Wall has staged more photoshoots and taken pictures of more than 170 locals with the sofa and even a few animals, including a tortoise, a chicken and a horse. His photoshoots have made the sofa a surprise tourist attraction, rising up the Tripadvisor rankings to become the second-best thing to do in Lydbrook (pipped only by an alpaca farm).
It's become a real community and feelgood thing, says Elton-Wall. You know, life's tough, the world's pretty crazy at the moment, but people have really embraced this.
Items started appearing mysteriously around the sofa; a side table with a plant pot, a hat stand, a lampshade, a rug, a coffee table and a magazine rack.
At the start of April, a few weeks after the sofa first appeared, the 49-year-old office worker posted a message in the village Facebook group asking for people to come and pose on the sofa so he could take their portraits.
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